Oversway
by broadhands
Summary: The continuing story of Na'dia, former Avatar driver and palulukan girl from beyond the stars. Sequel to 'New Steps' and 'En Pointe' set years after the clashes between the RDA and the Na'vi. She feels disquiet in the flow of life energy through Eywa.
1. Chapter 1

She really was a beautiful child, mused Na'dia, as she watched her young daughter tease her half-brother. Tat'yana, named in memory of a far-distant and long-dead childhood friend, was quick and graceful, and looked to become as accomplished a dancer as her mother – a fact of which Na'dia was very proud.

Tat'yana retained few signs that her mother had been a product of the RDA Avatar program, bearing the typical four digits of a born Na'vi on her hands and feet rather than the five of a human/Na'vi hybrid – although her facial features showed a strong resemblance to her mother, a fact of which her father was very grateful. Txep'ean had said on more than one occasion that he would not wish his features on any young female.

Personally, Na'dia thought her mate was extremely handsome, and that a feminine version of his face would be attractive to any male. But that was only her opinion.

In any case, Hukato, his son by their other mate, Ninat, looked like a miniature mirror image of his father.

Na'dia had worried that her extremely unconventional mating with Txep'ean and Ninat might lead to the ostracism of their children by the rest of the clan, but this had not been the case. It seemed that the existence of the tsumuke'awsiteng – the circle of sisters – smoothed over these little irregularities. Of course, Na'dia's reputation as the palulukan girl from beyond the stars, and her unmatched abilities as a warrior, might have a little something to do with their acceptance.

This was emphasised by the twin titanium alloy short-swords hanging from her p'ah s'ivil chey, besides which leant the imposing sight of her pe'efzhe – or BFG, a GAU-90 thirty millimetre auto-cannon, modified for use as a sniper rifle. Na'dia unconsciously rubbed her right shoulder, remembering the bruising recoil of the monstrous firearm. At least once a month, she took the bastard of a weapon out for practice, with Ninat as her spotter – just like she had in the last clash between the Na'vi and the tawtute, all those years ago. Even if cleaning the bitch took her a couple of days after every use.

Of course, she never used it against a live target. That would be in contravention of her beliefs as what the Na'vi called swok'txelan – those that are pure of heart. She still did not eat meat of any kind, nor kill animals for food – although there were times she would love to do away with her extremely irritating and violently insane pa'li stallion. Especially when he deliberately trod on her foot.

She had tried to get the damn beast to rejoin a herd, but it insisted on hanging around, just to make her life difficult. She could not trust it near any other Na'vi – except for, strangely enough, her daughter.

Which reminded her – she should really go make a trip to Hell's Gate to pick up more ammunition. Tomorrow, she decided – she would go tomorrow. Na'dia needed a break from her normal routine of teaching dance and taekkyon to the Omaticaya. It would be good to see Max Patel and the other humans, and to see her sensei – the palulukan.

Three years ago, the near-annual visits of a human starship had ceased unexpectedly. Na'dia was glad that the visits had stopped – despite being a born a human, little in her life led her to trust her birth species. Those last few visits had been uneasy, a fragile truce somehow continuing - eased, perhaps, by the agreement of the Na'vi to trade the remaining stocks of refined unobtanium. Of course, it was considered most impolite to mention the presence of a lethal genetically engineered virus in the atmosphere that would kill an unvaccinated human in days. This defence had been demonstrated by a clandestine attempt of a human military team to land and seize Hell's Gate, despite the warning they were given. The attempt was, of course, unsuccessful - messily so.

Now, any traffic with the Pandoran surface required the humans to wear pressure suits, and to flush the interior of the shuttle to hard vacuum for two days before repressurising. She pitied the poor bastards who had to live in the suits for that length of time.

A few humans – mostly members of the Avatar program - had been allowed to stay, and were given the vaccine, on the promise that they could not return to Earth.

Max and the palulukan were not idiots. They knew if any vaccinated humans left Pandora, their blood would be examined for antibodies against what they were calling Pandoran sleeping sickness.

Even so, Max was almost certain that sampling missions had been run to acquire the virus for study, so the disease had only been, at best, a delaying tactic. The humans were sure to try to establish an outpost on Pandora again, if only because their need for unobtanium was so desperate.

And that would mean war.

"Txep'ean!" she cried out happily, as her life-mate emerged into the clearing. She ran lightly towards him, to be grabbed, swung off her feet and thoroughly kissed.

"You know, my love," said Txep'ean, "You still look as beautiful as the first day I met you."

Tat'yana broke from playing with her half-brother to complain, "Sempu! Do you have to be so mushy all the time with sa'nu?"

"Yes," he stated firmly. "I do." He was right, he thought. Na'dia still looked exactly like a young girl in the first blush of her woman-hood, despite the time that had passed and the child she had borne. Not that he complained, although Ninat grumbled about it occasionally.

Na'dia answered her daughter snippily, "Your father told me on that day I did not belong here." She kissed her mate lightly on the tip of his nose.

Txep'ean said in self-defence, his good humour evident in the tone of his voice, "You agreed with me, as I remember."

"So I did," she replied. "I was never so happy to be proven wrong, even if it did take you a lot longer to come to the same conclusion."

"Hukato," called out Txep'ean. "I have some wisdom to impart to my son."

"What is it, sempu?" asked his son, looking up from his play with his sister's toy ikran.

"A wise man wishing for a peaceful life agrees in all things with his mate," said Txep'ean, mock seriously, making Na'dia chuckle.

The boy frowned, "Surely that is not right. A man, especially a warrior, is always right." The frown got even deeper, and he asked, "What do you do when sa'nu and Na'dia disagree? They are both your mates, and they argue a lot."

Txep'ean roared with laughter. When he stopped, he admitted ruefully, "My life is not a peaceful one, ma'itan."

Na'dia tweaked her mate's tail. "I don't hear you complaining about it, my love."

He smiled down at his petite mate. "I don't," he said. "I love both you and Ninat – my life is richer that I could ever have imagined."

A serious expression appeared on Na'dia's face, worrying him instantly.

"Txep'ean," she said quietly, so as not to disturb the children, "I have need to go to Hell's Gate. Tomorrow."

"Why so soon?" he asked reasonably.

She swallowed deeply before speaking, worrying her mate even more. Na'dia only did that when she knew something was wrong.

Na'dia had been trying to hold off a feeling of disquiet, trying to ignore it. It had grown too strong for her to ignore any longer. "I feel...an uncertainty in the flow of life energy through Eywa," she finally admitted. "I have felt this for some days. It may be nothing, but..." her voice trailed off.

The changes the palulukan had made to his mate through melding via tsahaylu had left her extraordinarily sensitive to Eywa's will. He had experienced her knowledge of Eywa when he made the bond with her, so had no doubt about her abilities – unlike Na'dia, whose skepticism was still informed by the imprint of her human upbringing, despite her experience.

Her mate said regretfully, "I am afraid I cannot go with you, my love. The training of the taronyu candidates cannot be interrupted at this point, not just before they go to Iknimaya."

"I know. There is something else," she said. "I need Ninat to accompany me."

He nodded, a disturbed expression on his face. "Will you take the children?"

Shaking her head, Na'dia replied, "No. Peyral will take care of them while you are busy." She grinned impishly, "And no, it isn't so I can get Ninat to myself for a few days."

A half-smile appeared on his face, before he asked, "Have you discussed this with Mo'at or Ney'tiri?"

"Not yet," she said. "I wanted to talk to you first. You are my mate."

Suddenly, he grinned back at her. "I bet you haven't asked Ninat yet," he insinuated. "Don't you think that you should have asked her first, before you asked me?" From the expression of horror on his mate's face, Txep'ean could see there was going to be a stand up knock'em down argument tonight, and he had no intention of being in the middle of it. It would be like trying to hold back a stampede of 'angitsa. He did, after all, have some skerrick of a sense of self-preservation. He resolved to steal some of Na'dia's ear plugs while she wasn't looking.

Later that night, Txep'ean was glad he did.


	2. Chapter 2

"I still don't see why I should have to drop everything and go," complained Ninat, glaring back at her life-mate.

Na'dia sighed to herself. The argument had been going around in circles for half-an-hour. Txep'ean had not said anything for most of that time – he was wearing his attentive expression that indicated he wasn't going to step into the middle of the disagreement. By the slight glazing of his expression she suspected that he had sequestered a paid of the earplugs Na'dia used to protect her hearing when firing the pe'efzhe. Just like a man, she thought.

So Na'dia decided to try a different approach. "But Ninat, darling," she purred, "We could have some fun together, just us two, like when we were girls." She ended up with her arm around Ninat's waist, her eyes inches from her lover's. Na'dia ran her tongue lightly across her top lip, and she could see Ninat's resolve begin to crack. Txep'ean finally showed some sign of life at the sudden display of sensuality.

For a moment Na'dia thought that she had won. The only problem was that she must have allowed a tiny hint of triumph to appear in her eyes. Ninat pulled away, scowling, "If you think you're going to seduce me into going, then you've got another thing coming!"

Damn, thought Na'dia. There was only one more tactic that she had left in her bare armoury. "Ninat," said Na'dia, her expression suddenly serious. "I don't have a choice but to take you. Eywa told me." It was the truth – the flow of her life energy was not smooth and calm when she thought of going alone.

Ninat snorted, looking very like the manipulative young woman that Na'dia had fallen in love with. "Why didn't you say so in the first place, Na'dia," she retorted. "We could have had this wrapped up ages ago."

Na'dia admitted reluctantly, "I don't like using that argument. It seems unfair." She straightened up and looked at Ninat, clear in the eyes, challenging her directly. "Besides, I know how much you love to argue with me." It wasn't just that – Na'dia loved the make-up sex after a good fight with Ninat. There was something extra-special about their ardency, and Txep'ean didn't seem to mind in the slightest, either. That was probably the biggest reason why they fought so much.

Txep'ean extracted a plug from his ear. "Have you two finished yet?" he asked plaintively.

Both Na'dia and Ninat snorted in disgust at the fraudulence of their mate, and left him there without another word.

Peyral was showing the distinct signs of yet another pregnancy. It seemed that six children were not enough for her, unlike the two or three of most Na'vi mated pairs. She and her mate Tareyu appeared to be determined to make good the numbers of the Omaticaya by themselves. Na'dia suppressed a slight twinge of jealousy at her friend's fecundity – Peyral seemed to drop children with the ease of braiding her hair. After experiencing two miscarriages, Na'dia's pregnancy had been fraught with difficulty, and she had almost died during Tat'yana's delivery. Mo'at had told Na'dia not to bear another child – it would be too dangerous to attempt again. The tawtute doctors at Hell's Gate had agreed with Mo'at, saying that it was a miracle that she had managed to conceive at all. Female Avatars had never been designed with pregnancy in mind.

She had not wanted to accept their advice, but the anguish on the faces of Ninat and Txep'ean at the thought of losing her had been the only thing that had changed Na'dia's mind.

Ninat asked, "How long have you got to go, Peyral?"

"Four weeks," replied the tall erstwhile hunter. "Four weeks, and I'll have another little imp to chase after."

Na'dia snorted in derision at her friend's words. Peyral mothered her children effortlessly – they had to be the best behaved children in the entire clan. "Why do you have so many?" she asked, not for the first time.

Peyral shrugged. "I like being pregnant," she admitted. "It feels good. Besides, all Tareyu has to do is to wave his thing vaguely in my direction and boom – I'm pregnant again, with or without Uniluke."

It was true – at least three of Peyral's pregnancies had occurred when she had been religiously participating in the Uniluke ceremony, which provided Na'vi women with the means of natural birth control. It just seemed that Peyral was super-fertile.

"Na'dia and I have to take a trip to see the tawtute," said Ninat. "We'll be gone for a week or so, and we'd like you to look after Hukato and Tat'yana."

"Sure," said Peyral, her easy-going nature totally unruffled. "They're good kids, and my six will keep them out of trouble."

"Irayo," responded Na'dia. "I don't know how to thank you."

"Anything for my sisters of our tsumuke'awsiteng," said Peyral.

Na'dia hesitated slightly, before saying, "I need to speak to Mo'at. Do you mind if I go?"

Her sisters told her to not to worry – they would be fine.

The Tsahik did not seem surprised to see her. They had talked frequently over the years, as Mo'at wished to understand more of the way of the palulukan – a matter in which Na'dia knew more than any Na'vi or human, for she carried all the memories and knowledge of her palulukan sensei – a savage predator almost three thousand years old.

"I See you, Na'dia," said Mo'at kindly. The years had treated her well, although she had a look of perpetual sadness on her face. She still felt great grief at the death of her mate Eytukan, and so many of the Omaticaya during destruction of Hometree and the war against the tawtute.

"I See you, Mo'at," replied Na'dia.

"What is it, my child?" asked the Tsahik of the Omaticaya. "It has been some weeks since we last talked."

Na'dia knelt on the ground, facing the older woman directly, so they could talk in comfort. Strangely enough, she did not miss chairs or furniture, her body adapting effortlessly to the absence of the trappings of human civilisation. "I am troubled, mother," she told Mo'at. She took a deep breath, and wondered how to say what she needed. "My dreams," she started to say. "My dreams, they are becoming stronger, more demanding, more clamorous. I do not know how long I can resist them. The flow of my life energy is disturbed, and I fear that Eywa is calling to me."

She was speaking of her dreams of killing, of savage bloodshed, that echoed through her soul, courtesy of her remaking through tsahaylu with the palulukan. It was the reason that she followed the path of strict vegetarianism, of the path of swok'txelan. She feared that if she tasted flesh and blood, she would lose her restraint and become nothing more than a killing machine. It had happened to her once before, in the war against the tawtute, and the memories still sickened her. Na'dia had left a trail of human blood and gore wherever she went. She was terrified that she would turn on the Na'vi that had taken her to their bosom – a fit act of betrayal for a former human.

Mo'at nodded. "It is well you are swok'txelan," she said. "It gives you strength, and the purity of your spirit is an example to all Na'vi. But there is purpose in the will of Eywa granting your spirit these dreams. Perhaps you should not resist it so strongly."

"But...," objected Na'dia.

"Listen to what I have to say, my child," advised Mo'at. "Your path has been harder than most, and that is why you must listen."

And listen she did, for over an hour, as Mo'at counselled her in the understanding of the will of Eywa.

She was exhausted when she returned to seek out her mates and children. Na'dia paused before she pulled herself up into their sleeping platform. She could hear Txep'ean talking to their children.

Tat'yana asked, "But why does sa'nu have to go, and take Ninat as well? I want them to stay here." She sounded very upset, almost as though she was about to cry. Sympathetic tears sprang into Na'dia's eyes.

Hukato retorted, "Stop being a baby. They are warriors, and you should be proud of them." She could hear a slight quaver in his voice as well, as though he was trying to be strong and brave, just like his father.

Txep'ean said quietly, "I know, Tat'yana. It is very hard for us to let your mother go, but you do know that she has been gifted by Eywa." There was a slight pause, and Na'dia could almost See her daughter nodding through her tears. "I know you are very proud of her, just as I am, but there is a heavy price that she must pay for her gifts, and unfortunately our sorrow is part of that price."

"It's not fair," whispered Tat'yana.

"No, it's not," agreed Txep'ean. "But dry your eyes, and try to look strong for your mother. She finds it just as hard to leave as you do to let her go, without seeing how upset you are."

Na'dia felt a slim arm curl around her waist, and heard Ninat murmur in her ear, "Be strong, my love. Our children need to see your strength and courage."

She nodded in agreement, and hurriedly wiped her eyes. At least she wasn't wearing mascara – one advantage of being Na'vi. "We are very lucky in our mate, and our children," she whispered back.

"Yes, we are," replied Ninat.


	3. Chapter 3

The water rippled softly in the pre-dawn light, as Na'dia danced her katas by the bank of the river. She loved this time of day, for its quiet and tranquillity.

Today, as she had not done for many months, she danced with her bare swords, the orange and pink of the sky reflected in the smooth surfaces of the blades. Here, like almost nowhere else, she could almost forget the turmoil of her spirit, of its unceasing demands for blood, and rejoice in the purity of movement.

So engrossed in the katas was she, that Txep'ean and Tat'yana managed to creep up to the edge of the clearing to watch her dance to greet the sun. It was not until she sheathed her blades that Na'dia realised she had an audience.

"This is how I first Saw your mother," said Txep'ean, as she walked over to them. "I skulked in the bushes, amazed at her grace and beauty, while she danced, oblivious to the world."

"Did you know she was tawtute? A dreamwalker?" asked Tat'yana.

"Yes," he replied to his daughter. "I knew, and I hated her for it – although it was too late for me. Eywa turned my hate aside, and I had no choice but to grow to love her."

"I did happen to save your life," said Na'dia reprovingly.

He shrugged good-naturedly. "So you did," he said. "And I saved yours."

"Sa'nu," asked Tat'yana, "What was it like being tawtute?" Her daughter had never asked her this before.

"That's a very big question for so early in the morning," replied Na'dia. When she saw that her daughter would not accept this evasion for an answer, she said reluctantly, "It was hard, and unhappy, mostly – although there were brief moments of joy. The tawtute do not hear Eywa, and this is the source of both their sorrow, and their terrible strength. They can do marvellous things beyond our conception, like travel between the stars, and walk in our forest as uniltìranyu, but they spend their lives seeking, ever restless, ever alone, and most never find what they truly seek."

"But you found sempu, and Ninat, and the People," stated her daughter. "So you really found what you were seeking."

"Most importantly I found you," finished Na'dia with a smile. There were other things that she had found that she wished she had not. "Come, let us go eat," she said, adding, "And wake up Ninat and Hukato before all the food is gone."

Tat'yana took a hand from each of her parents, and they walked together back to the new Kelutrel, the young girl swinging from time to time between them.

It was almost midday before Na'dia and Ninat left. Ninat said, "I don't see why you insisted on bringing the pe'efzhe with us. It weighs almost as much as a young 'angitsa, and its not like we'll be doing any shooting. We only have two belts of ammo left."

Na'dia retorted, "If I remember rightly, I am the one who loads the pe'efzhe on to the stupid pa'li. I don't see why you are complaining – you only have to carry the spotting scope."

"I'm sorry," said Ninat, uncharacteristically. "I didn't mean to make you angry."

"Apology accepted," said Na'dia shortly, and they rode in silence for some minutes. Na'dia had wished to travel via the Tree of Souls, so that she could seek guidance from the ancestor spirits within Eywa – she sorely felt the need of some reassurance, after her discussion with Mo'at. It should only take a couple of hours to get there, but if Ninat continued in her bad mood, it would seem like a journey of days, or even weeks. Finally, to break the deathly silence, Na'dia asked, "What's wrong, my love?"

She was surprised when she heard Ninat sniff back some tears, and reined in her pa'li, to stop alongside her lover's, to see her face twisted in anguish. Na'dia reached out a hand to touch her life-mate, and asked, "Please tell me."

"It's Peyral," admitted Ninat, "Seeing her with all her children, and about to have another. I was so jealous. I want to have another baby too."

"Well, why don't we?" answered Na'dia calmly. "When we get back, you can stop Uniluke and we can have another child. There are only two between the three of us, after all."

"I can't," said Ninat. "It's not fair to you. I know how much you wanted another child, and how upset you were when Mo'at and the toktors told you not to. I didn't want to make you jealous."

An old ache awoke in Na'dia's heart that she thought had gone, years ago. "I want you to have another child with Txep'ean," she told her lover, despite the empty place in her soul. "Not having a baby because you are worrying about me is no reason. Any child we bring into being between the three of us I will love, whether or not I carried her to term. Do you think I don't love Hukato?"

"No, but...," said Ninat.

"You are right," interrupted Na'dia, knowing exactly what Ninat was about to say. After all, they had been life-mates of most of a decade. "I have a special place in my heart for Tat'yana, because I carried her in my body, just as you do for Hukato. That does not mean I love him any the less, and it will be the same for any baby that Eywa grants to us. I love you, I love Txep'ean, and I love our children. That is all you need to know."

In a very small voice, Ninat said, "I don't deserve you."

"No, you don't," agreed Na'dia, in the most arrogant voice she could muster, using the tone she had used to make graduate students quail before her at Stanford. "I am the palulukan girl from beyond the stars, and I am far above mere mortals. You should count yourself lucky."

A look of outrage appeared on Ninat's face, and she was about to vehemently object to this bare-faced assertion of superiority, when Na'dia added carelessly, "I don't see what you have to complain about. You were the one who sang those words to the song, and spread it amongst all the clans. I have to listen to the damn silly tune everytime I go to visit another clan."

"It's a good song," said Ninat proudly. "The best song I have ever sung."

"I know," said Na'dia softly. "That is because you sing it with love."

Ninat smiled sweetly at her lover, as she had not for many months, and Na'dia felt a great wave of relief spread through her entire soul. She had finally managed to discover what had been eating at her life-mate, and heal the deep wound she had been nurturing. Soon they were chattering together like the best of friends and lovers, all the way to the Tree of Souls. After all, that was exactly what they were.

After they had made camp at the Vitraya Ramunong, Na'dia did not go directly to commune with the Tree of Souls. Instead, she stopped at a rather scruffy looking pamtseowll plant, before which was a small mound covered with short grass. She knelt there, placed her left hand flat on the earth and felt for the life energy around the grave, the soft music of the pamtseowll filling her sensitive ears. She sighed, remembering the pain she had endured in the shell that lay in this grave, for all the years after she was burnt by nuclear fire.

Ninat knew whose body was in that grave. She had been there the night that Na'dia had passed through the Eye of Eywa, and had seen Txep'ean lay the tiny, twisted human in the earth.

"Do you ever miss it?" she asked quietly. Ninat had never seen a body – human or Na'vi – that had been as scarred and damaged and tortured as the tawtute body that had been Na'dia's.

"I fear few things in my life," answered Na'dia. "But my greatest fear is that all my life on Pandora has been but a dream, and that I am about to wake up." She stood up slowly, and hugged her lover tightly.

As she returned the embrace, Ninat reflected that no-one could have given a more clear-cut answer.


	4. Chapter 4

Na'dia knelt at the base of the Tree of Souls. She gazed up into the softly glowing pink fronds of the tree, her queue in her hand. The few times she had done this of her own volition, she had learnt things she had no wish to know.

She shut her eyes, shuddered briefly and allowed the tendrils of her queue to entwine around a single frond. Na'dia relived the sensation of falling down the tunnel of light, just as she had the first time she used a link unit to connect with her Avatar.

The place that materialised around was familiar – the recreation of the dance studio where she learnt to dance, where she passed through the eye of Eywa.

"Na'dia," said Grace Augustine. "Long time no See."

"Grace," replied Na'dia. The long-dead scientist was wearing her Avatar body, her hair braided and decorated, the only discordant note a slightly grubby white lab coat. "How are you?" she asked coolly.

"Being dead isn't all it's cracked up to be," commented Grace. "Though I love your new look."

Na'dia glanced in one of the mirrors at her reflection and started in shock. The image that stared back at her was a bizarre amalgam of a Na'vi and a palulukan, the jet black skin replacing the subtle blue tiger stripes that she loved to trace on her life mates. Below her diaphragm, she had the body of a Na'vi – above it phased into four massive clawed arms and the lengthened skull of a palulukan. It looked as scary as all hell. Strangely enough, there was a pair of ivory silk ballet shoes on her feet.

Grace continued, "Your appearance in here is a reflection of your soul, so I don't see why you should be so surprised. Just like in Ninat's song, you are the palulukan girl from beyond the stars, after all."

"I'm not," said Na'dia. "It's just startling, the first time you see it. The teeth feel a bit strange, too," she added. "There are a lot more of them than I'm used to. Why have you called me here?"

"A couple of reasons," said Grace. "Eywa wanted to get a detailed impression of your spirit – it's been a while since the last one, if only because you've been avoiding us – but that is just by-the-by." She paused, imagined a lit cigarette into existence and took a long drag. "God that's good," she said irrelevantly. "Indulgent, perhaps, but damn good."

She continued, "The other reason is that you're going to have to get back in the saddle. You knew this would happen, sooner or later."

"Why me?" demanded Na'dia.

The former scientist gave an ironic bark of laughter. "You know, I asked Eywa the same thing, after that damn bastard Quaritch shot me." She took another drag, adding irrelevantly. "The psycho bastard is in here too, you know. Eywa treasures all life, even that of an insane jarhead killing machine." She walked over to one of the windows, to gaze out over the sunlit city of Kiev – a scene that only existed in Na'dia's memory. "You are the only Na'vi/human/palulukan hybrid in existence, so of course Eywa will want your help. Not that you have any choice – I didn't either. Just be glad you're enough of a favoured soul to get a little warning."

"What if I refuse?" asked Na'dia, her cheek flaps curling up to display an intimidating set of teeth. "She can't make me do her will."

"You're right," replied Grace, taking another drag. "Eywa won't force you to do anything at all. You'll do it all of your own volition, because that's who you are, and the manipulative bitch doesn't need to do a damn thing. She has the perfect lever – it's the one she always uses, and you get to do all the heavy lifting."

"Lever?" Na'dia was puzzled by the last comment.

"It worked so well on both you and Zhake, after all," she replied, flicking the butt of the cigarette away. She turned to look at the palulukan girl. "You are slow today, Na'dia. The lever is love." Grace waved a hand at one of the mirrors, to bring up a succession of images – Txep'ean, Ninat, her palulukan sensei, Peyral, Ney'tiri, lingering on the final image – the face of her daughter Tat'yana.

"You bitch!" hissed Na'dia, and took a threatening step towards the erstwhile head of the Avatar program.

Grace replied, "Hey, I'm just the messenger. And you know there is no point in attacking me. I am dead, and there is nothing you can do to me. Not in here."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Na'dia silkily, her soft voice more threatening than the harshest scream. Her arm shot out, her razor sharp claws wrapping around Grace's throat, and lifting her feet off the ground. Suddenly, the face of the dead woman expressed real fear, as a small trickle of blood ran down her torso. Na'dia held up her other three arms, the retractable claws shooting out to their maximum length. "I can hold you here, with no prospect of escape, and use these little things to rip away your substance, until there is nothing left other than a few little wisps of spirit. There is nothing you or Eywa can do to stop me."

Na'dia pointed one claw and slowly dragged it down Grace's body, leaving a single deep wound that welled – not blood, but pure spirit.

"So if you, or any of Eywa's tools hurt, or even threaten the ones I love," she murmured, "I will come in here and tear them apart. I don't even need the Tree to do that, and nothing can stop me." Na'dia chuckled. "Eywa knows what she has created in me. The humans would call me Anti-Christ, and they would not be wrong." Na'dia licked the pure spirit from the claw with her long, rough tongue, and squeezed Grace's neck to make her eyes bulge. "Do you and your bitch mistress understand?"

"Yes," gasped Grace.

Na'dia started to laugh, at first softly, each peal growing steadily louder, until the place that they occupied rang with insane laughter. Effortlessly, she spun and turned, casting Grace the length of the studio, smashing her spiritual body into the mirrors at the far end. Silvered glass fell like rain onto the wooden floor, slicing into the soul that lay crumpled on the floor, making the dead woman scream in agony.

In a blink of the eye, Na'dia was gone.

Grace slowly got to her feet, the wounds inflicted by both Na'dia's claws and the rain of glass rapidly healing. She shuddered once, and then spoke aloud. "You are taking a terrible risk," she said. "She has the strength to destroy all this, and you, if she chooses."

The scientist tilted her head to one side, and listened to the silent answer. Grace replied, "You are right, I suppose. But why did you have to select such a cast-iron bitch for this job?"

Outside, in the depression of the Vitraya Ramunong, Na'dia screamed as her consciousness returned to her body, ripping her queue away from its link with the Tree of Souls. She needed to kill something. Now.


	5. Chapter 5

It tasted so good!

Na'dia closed her teeth on the yerik haunch and tore off another strip of raw flesh. She chewed three times, blood smearing her face and swallowed convulsively. Why hadn't she done this before? A cold shiver ran down her spine as she relived the savage joy of ripping out the yerik's throat, and feeling the thrashing of its limbs slowly cease beneath her body.

She glanced at the hand holding the haunch, sighed with disappointment, and dropped the haunch on the ground. Her fingernails did not suddenly extend as razor sharp claws, as they had within the belly of Eywa. Instead, Na'dia drew her knife from its scabbard, and slit open the yerik belly, blood and guts slipping out on to the grass. She reached into the chest cavity and ripped out its heart. She was, after all, still hungry.

The pack of nantang waited patiently around her kill. They recognised that she was a more fearsome predator, and were content to wait until she had eaten her fill. One of them – a large male - crept a little closer, until she hissed at it in warning. It flattened itself on the ground, and in submission offered its throat for her to tear out – an offering which she chose to ignore.

After she finished the heart, Na'dia pulled off another of the yerik's limbs, and briefly savaged it with her teeth. But now she was only playing with her food, to show her dominance. Na'dia poked at the carcass a few more times, kicked at it, and walked away, dropping the limb to the earth. The nantang pack opened a gap for her to pass, and then fell upon the dead meat, snapping and snarling.

Her ears twitched, and Na'dia decided – that direction. Soon she was standing at the edge of a forest stream, flowing into a deep pool. This was what she wanted. Her clothes and gear fell onto the grassy sward, and she plunged in, the contrast between the warmth of the night air and the cold of the water forcing the breath from her lungs.

As Na'dia surfaced, she flicked her head, scattering a spray of water drops across the surface of the pool. She called out, "Yaaaaa!"

It was good to be alive, she thought, as she tread water in the middle of the pool.

There was a slight rustle in the undergrowth, causing Na'dia to swing her head towards the noise. "I See you, Ninat," she called out. "You are getting sloppy."

Ninat emerged from the forest, looking worried. "Where have you been?" she asked. "I expected you back from the Tree hours ago."

Na'dia grinned, retorting, "I was hungry, and felt like foraging for my own food for a change." A more serious expression fleeted across her face, as she added, "I needed a little time alone to think about the content of the message I was given."

"Eywa spoke?" asked Ninat.

"Not exactly," answered Na'dia. "I saw Grace. She told me that there would be war again, but did not say against whom, or when this would happen." Na'dia could not tell her lover the full import of the message - that Ninat would be used to compel Na'dia to fight. Not that she didn't want to fight. She felt a sudden rush of hot blood at the thought of fighting, and killing. It was almost as though the restraints that she had harnessed her blood lust against over the years had evapourated in an instant, into nothing but mist. The rush of hot blood didn't only raise her body heat – it fuelled her lust.

Na'dia purred, "Why don't you come on in, darling. The water is cold, but I will keep you warm."

Ninat showed no hesitation. In seconds, her few garments were dumped on the ground, and she dived into the water, surfacing directly in front of Na'dia. "I missed you," whispered Ninat.

There was only one answer that could be given – Na'dia embraced her lover, and kissed her passionately. As they kissed, they spun slowly in the water – until Ninat pushed Na'dia underwater.

As soon as Na'dia's head broke the surface she coughed and spluttered, cursing Ninat between gasping breaths. Ninat just grinned back at her, and told her life-mate that was for calling her sloppy. "I meant you to hear me coming," she said, her eyes twinkling. "I didn't want to frighten you."

"Frighten me?" objected Na'dia hotly. "How can you frighten me? I'm the..."

"Palulukan girl from beyond the stars," finished Ninat cheekily, making Na'dia laugh.

When they made love joined in tsahaylu that night, on the soft turf next to the stream, Ninat was struck by the wildness and passion she felt from her life-mate. She had not read anything like this from her lover since before Tat'yana was born.

What had happened while Na'dia was communing with the Tree of Souls?


	6. Chapter 6

The morning sunlight flashed from her blades. Na'dia's feet hardly touched the ground as she danced her katas. Everything was crystal clear and razor sharp this morning, and all felt right with her world.

Ninat called out, "If we don't get going soon, we won't get to Hell's Gate before the rainy season starts." She was right – an ominous looking wall of black clouds was rolling in from the west, threatening to start the wet season a month early. Na'dia sheathed her swords without complaint and went to help Ninat load the pa'li with their gear.

Her words were prophetic. Fifteen minutes after they left Vitraya Ramunong, the heavens opened. Not in all the years since Na'dia had arrived on Pandora had she seen anything like it. The rain did not fall in drops, it sheeted down. The flash of lightning was constant, accompanied by the continuous rolling of thunder, the occasional clap sounding directly overhead and making the two Na'vi women jump.

There was no point in seeking cover. The rain cut through the foliage overhead – no, thought Na'dia, that was wrong. The rain didn't cut. It smashed through the forest canopy, more like an artillery barrage than a natural event. The ground turned into a fine slurry of mud and slime, forcing the two women to dismount and lead their pa'li on foot. Even then, they continually slipped and slid, falling frequently. The only saving grace was that the falling rain was warm, the same temperature as the air around them and the blood running through their veins.

"We have to find shelter," yelled Ninat, over the roar of the falling water. "At least until the rains slacken off. If we keep on going the pa'li will fall and break a leg."

The roar of the falling rain was so deafening that Na'dia didn't bother trying to speak. Instead, she signed her response. "Last time I came this way, there was a cliff with caves in it, only ten minutes walk from here."

Na'dia was wrong. It wasn't ten minutes walk. It was close to an hour of stumbling and slipping through the mud.

At least it was a little cooler in the cave.

Na'dia squatted in the mouth of the cave, stripping the BFG down into components. She carefully dried each one with a cleaning cloth, laying them out on the smooth stone before her. Once she had the fearsome weapon completely stripped down, she sprayed each part with a corrosion inhibitor, followed by a thin coating of lubricant.

Ninat watched Na'dia with an amused smile on her face. Her lover was totally focused, each movement precise and graceful, almost as though her hands were performing an intricate ballet. She asked, "Do you do everything like this?"

"Like what?" asked Na'dia absently, her attention not wavering from her self-appointed task.

"As though it was the only thing in the world," replied Ninat. "When you dance, or fight, or teach our children, or make love, you are so intense - not that I mind about the love making – it seems you are trying to be perfect about everything you do."

"Oh?" asked Na'dia, her hands rapidly reassembling the BFG. As she slid the sight back on to its bracket rail, and worked the bolt several times, she asked, "What did you say?" Before Ninat could give an answer, she swung the bipod down and took up a classic snipers position, tucking the padded butt of the huge gun into her shoulder and peering down the sight. Everything seemed to be working perfectly.

When Ninat said nothing in reply, Na'dia took her eye from the sniper scope and turned towards her life-mate, to see a wry smile on her lover's face. "What's so funny?"

"You," said Ninat. "You haven't heard a single thing that I said, have you?"

"I'm sorry," replied Na'dia, her face flushing hot. "I've always been like this, ever since I was a child."

"You never talk about your childhood," said Ninat, ever curious, "Or your family. What was it like, growing up as a tawtute girl?"

She sat up, and leant against the wall of the cave, resting the gun across her thighs. "What do you want to know?" asked Na'dia.

"Everything."

Na'dia sighed. She looked around her, out at the rain-soaked forest. It was so different to the city of her childhood. "Mama – I mean sa'nok - died very young," she started, "When I was about eight. I always wanted to be a dancer, just like her. She was so beautiful. Mama danced in the chorus of the Kiev Ballet, until I came on the scene. She left the ballet to teach, and taught me to dance from the time I was three. Papa said I was her mirror image.

"We lived high up in a tower, in an apartment about the size of this cave, in a city with hundreds of like towers. Papa – sempul – was a warrior. He was a teacher too, teaching young warriors the art of unarmed combat. Papa taught me his art of taekkyon, just as Mama taught me ballet. He was tall and handsome, but after Mama died he was very sad. He told me that I was the only thing that made him smile."

Na'dia's hands gripped the barrel of the gun tightly, her knuckles turning pale. She had hardly talked about her parents since the bomb that had destroyed Kiev, and burnt her life away.

"How did your mother die?" asked Ninat softly.

"In childbirth," said Na'dia quietly. "My brother Mikhail died two days later. Afterwards, I threw myself into learning my lessons – taekkyon from my father, and ballet from a friend of Mama – to the exclusion of everything else. If I concentrated on only those things, then I would not remember that Mama was gone. So I learnt to focus on only one thing and do it well, to the exclusion of everything else – just to stop the pain.

"That was my life, more or less, until the nuke levelled the city, and killed everyone I knew." A large lump appeared in Na'dia's throat. She could talk no more.

Ninat walked over, and lifted the gun away from Na'dia. She placed it further inside the cave, and returned to sit alongside her lover, sliding an arm around her shoulders, allowing Na'dia to softly weep. "It is right that you should grieve," said Ninat.

"They are truly gone," whispered Na'dia. "It is not like here, where Eywa gathers all life to her bosom, and we can touch our loved ones through the Trees of Voices, through Vitraya Ramunong. On Earth, when one dies, that is the end. Life disappears into nothingness from that ugly place, because we killed our mother."

"Shhh, my love," said Ninat, caressing Na'dia's tear-stained face. "I cannot believe that, even though Zhake has told me of this. I am sure the spirits of your loved ones are somewhere, though you cannot reach them. The People say that each time we think of the ones that have gone before us, it gladdens their spirits. It must be same for the tawtute."

"Do you think so?" asked Na'dia, her voice shaking with long-suppressed grief and anguish.

The answer was given in words that spoke of unshakeable faith. "I know so," replied Ninat.

The two lovers sat in the cave's mouth for hours, silently watching the rain sheet down.

Eventually Ninat broke the silence. "Your story explains much of who you are," she said. "I am sorry if by asking you to recount it, I caused you pain."

Na'dia squeezed Ninat's hand to reassure her, and smiled. "I am glad you asked it of me," she admitted candidly, if a little ruefully. Her heart still felt bruised, but her mood was light, so light that she added, "I had not thought of Mama and Papa for years."

Ninat was still curious about something. "Was this why you agreed not to have another child?"

Nodding, Na'dia agreed. "I remember Papa's face, when he told me Mama was gone. It had set like stone, but I had never seen such agony in one's eyes before. I could not bear that you and Txep'ean feel the same grief as Papa."

"Thank you," said Ninat, and kissed her gently on the lips.


	7. Chapter 7

The rain did not let up for three days. The two women almost became reconciled to hearing nothing but the roar of the swollen watercourses and the thunder of the never-ending rain. There was little to do but talk.

One of the main topics of discussion was bitching about how to keep fungus from growing on their gear. Na'dia was paranoid about moisture getting into the optics of both the scope on the BFG, and Ninat's spotting scope - not that she could have done anything about it. She was relieved to see that her concerns were unfounded.

It was bad enough trying to remove the mould from their garments, minimal though they were, and the leather grips of their blades – let alone themselves. Ninat almost screamed with frustration from itching when she awoke with a nasty little infection on the second day. It sent her plunging out into the rain to collect some oily leaves from one of the bazillion Pandoran plants with medicinal uses.

Na'dia reflected it was one of the few advantages of living in a Na'vi/human hybrid body. The genetic engineers had obviously built in enhanced resistance against those horrible little fungi – an enhancement for which she was extremely grateful. She also noted with amusement that the heroines in adventure holovids never had to deal with these minor inconveniences, but declined to mention this fact to Ninat. Although she was the palulukan girl from beyond the stars, Na'dia still had some minor sense of self-preservation.

Avoidance of unwelcome visitors like Ninat's itch was the one of major reasons why the Na'vi wore so few clothes. That, and it was too damn hot most of the time to wear much anyway. This was one of the countless reasons why the Na'vi thought the tawtute uniltìranyu were so stupid.

So Ninat and Na'dia were surprised when they awoke to clear skies and a bright sun. Everything looked fresh, as though it had been washed in copious amounts of water – which, of course, it had.

It was surprising how quickly the ground dried out – the soil soaked the water up like a sponge – but the streams and rivers were not the same. They were swollen with oily looking brown water, instead of their usual crystal clear contents. Masses of forest debris were being dragged down to the sea by the raging watercourses. At the first stream they encountered, Na'dia looked doubtfully at the current – she was afraid of few things, but she did not want to even dip a toe in this stream. There was no point in taking stupid risks, no matter how far they had to go out of their way.

"We will have to find a crossing," said Ninat. "It is too dangerous to ford a stream when it flows brown and strong after heavy rains."

Na'dia responded, "I was going to suggest the very same thing."

Ninat grinned back at her. "I am glad to know that some knowledge has penetrated that thick uniltìranyu skull of yours," she teased. "It seems even the most hopeless skxawng can learn if you repeat a lesson many times."

"Thank you very much for your words of wisdom," retorted Na'dia.

The swollen rivers turned what was usually a week's journey into one lasting over three weeks. It was the first time Na'dia regretted that she had never linked with an ikran and become taronyu – if she had, she could have flown over all of this flooding. There was only one problem. She could not see how any ikran would have submitted to forming a bond with her. The only animal she had linked with was her pa'li, and she had sent it insane, for it thought Na'dia was a palulukan. And to all intents and purposes, except for her body she was a palulukan, a thanator, for she carried almost three thousand years of the memories and knowledge of her sensei - one of the strongest and wisest of the Pandora's apex predator.

The landscape had become very familiar. Ninat commented, "We are almost there."

"Srane," replied Na'dia. Suddenly, she held up her hand, her ears twitching. "What was that?"

Ninat stopped her pa'li alongside Na'dia's, and they both listened carefully. "Someone is hurt," said Ninat. She plunged off her pa'li and into the undergrowth, closely followed by Na'dia.

They came across a wounded uniltìranyu, a woman that Na'dia knew well. She was gasping for breath, blood and air bubbling out of an ugly bullet wound in her chest.

"Zhess'ika," cried Na'dia. "Toktor Fleming, what happened?" Only last year this woman had chosen to pass through the Eye of Eywa, so that she could mate with one of the Ikran people from the Eastern Sea.

Ninat said, "Silence. She cannot talk, skxawng. Go back to the pa'li and get my medicines."

Na'dia did as she was told. Only a few seconds later she returned with a beautiful wooden box, inlaid with many iridescent seashells, undid the catch and flipped it open.

Ninat had just finished checking her back. She said to the wounded woman. "Zhess'ika, the tawtute stone is still inside you. If I do not remove it you will die. Do you understand?"

The woman nodded weakly.

"I will cause you great pain, but I cannot give you relief," continued Ninat. "It is too dangerous." She took a leather strap with many teeth marks indented on the smooth surface. "Bite down on this to stop you biting your tongue off. Na'dia, hold her down."

Ninat selected a bone retractor that would not have looked out of place in the most high technology surgery, so beautifully was it made. She used it to spread the edges of the puckered wound, making the woman shudder, and without looking or any hesitation grabbed another instrument, and started probing the wound.

The woman arched her back in agony, biting down hard on the leather strap. Na'dia reflected that the Omaticaya had far too much knowledge of how to treat bullet wounds, when Ninat whispered, "Got it." She carefully extracted the forceps she was using to probe the wound, to display a distorted bullet between their jaws. Na'dia silently thanked the fact that the humans had stopped using hollow point bullets, mainly because they found that the bone armour carried by many Pandoran animals was proof against them.

Red blood started to flood out of the wound. Ninat ordered, "Cauteriser."

The only thing of human manufacture was a rod of metal with a wooden handle. Na'dia placed it on a broad leaf, and then carefully covered the rod with a grey powder from a pottery jar. Then from a small glass bottle, she carefully spilled one drop of liquid on to the powder, shutting her eyes just before they touched. She felt a sudden flare of heat on her face, and opened her eyes to see Ninat grab the cauteriser, and plunge the hot metal rod into the wound, just as Na'dia grabbed the woman's wrists and held them to the earth..

A stink of burning flesh filled the air as the woman gave a short scream and passed out.

"She is tough, this one," said Ninat, as she withdrew the cauteriser. "Most would have lost awareness when I probed." She examined the cauteriser to make sure that no tissue had adhered to the hot metal, and then added, "You can let go now, Na'dia."

"Is she going to be alright?" asked Na'dia.

"I think so," said Ninat. She selected another pottery jar, and tapped out orange powder on to another leaf. She added a few drops of water, and stirred it into the powder with a wooden spatula, producing a sticky, resinous mass. She quickly spread it over the wound, before it hardened into a translucent, flexible membrane within ten seconds. "Zhess'ika will be able to breath now. I just thank Eywa that she was not wearing tawtute garments – cloth fragments would set in the wound and rot, killing her."

"We cannot move her," said Na'dia. "We should set up camp here, but I will not light a fire."

"That is wise," responded Ninat. "A fire could alert an enemy to our presence."

Neither of them spoke of who such an enemy might be.

A few minutes after Na'dia had finished setting up a rudimentary camp, Zhessika came to. "Thank you," she whispered, grimacing from pain.

Ninat asked, "What happened, Zhess'ika?"

"This morning, I flew my ikran to see Max," said Zhess'ika, her Na'vi overlaid with a heavy kiwi accent. "At Hell's Gate, I saw many uniltìranyu carrying weapons – hundreds of them. They shot and wounded me. I tried to fly away, but slipped from Snu'pe and fell. A lucky shot – they did not hit my Snu'pe. I ran from where I fell and hid – I could hear them lumbering through the forest, searching for me."

"Do not talk now," said Ninat. "I will give you something now for pain, to help you sleep."

The wounded woman nodded slowly. "Irayo," she whispered.

Zhess'ika slipped into a deep sleep shortly after being drinking the infusion that Na'dia prepared.

"How long before we can move her?" asked Na'dia.

"Three, may be four days," answered Ninat. "She will have to ride."

It still surprised Na'dia how quickly the Na'vi healed from serious wounds – including the rough and ready surgery that Ninat had inflicted on the wounded Zhess'ika. They were incredibly tough and resilient. "How well will she heal?" asked Na'dia curiously.

"Well enough," said Ninat. "She will have trouble breathing when flying her ikran very high, or running long distances, but otherwise should hardly notice the wound once it is healed."

"How soon can she ride her ikran?" asked Na'dia intensely, adding, "It will be easier on her to fly rather than be subjected to the rough gait of a pa'li. Zhessika could be with the Omaticaya in three hours if she flew."

"You are right, Na'dia," said Ninat, a frown on her face. "It would be better for her – as long as she did not fall."

Na'dia said grimly, "I have another reason for her to fly. Zhake needs to hear this news."

"You will be going to Hell's Gate, alone, to look at the uniltìranyu," stated Ninat, knowing that she had to take care of the wounded woman.

Na'dia drew her blades and examined the edges. It seemed that Grace had been right. There would be war again, and she was going to be right in the middle of it.

"Yes."


	8. Chapter 8

Zhess'ika had been right. Hell's Gate was swarming with uniltìranyu, all wearing drab camouflage fatigues and carrying assault rifles. Na'dia had thought that she knew every Avatar on Pandora, but it seemed that several hundred had magically appeared and taken over Hell's Gate.

The remains of the fence around the former RDA facility had been removed years ago – it had been pretty well redundant since in the last RDA assault it had been pretty well demolished by kinetic strike weapons delivered from orbit. The strange uniltìranyu were running patrols around the perimeter, and were already emplacing automated See-Wizz turrets.

Na'dia closed her eyes and concentrated. Anyone watching would have seen her slowly fade from view, until all that was left was a slight ripple in the nighttime air. She emerged from the edge of the forest, and slipped across the concrete apron, avoiding the patrols as she headed for one of the enormous warehouses. Na'dia thanked her foresight when she insisted that Max remove all the cameras and detection systems, in case she needed to be doing exactly what she was doing now. She could fool living beings to think that she wasn't there, but not electronics.

The code she typed into the keypad was her birthday – not original or secure, perhaps, but at least she could remember it. The LED flicked from red to green and the door unlocked. Na'dia glanced behind her – no-one was watching. Once inside, she unerringly found her way to a storage locker. There was no point in using the biometric scanner – Na'vi fingerprints did not register – so she used the keypad again, using the same code.

The interior of the locker held the few possessions she had retained from her tawtute life – including her Avatar clothes, among which was a set of military fatigues. Na'dia wriggled out of her loincloth, and pulled on the tawtute clothes. Her skin rebelled at the scratchy material, but the really horrible event was to come – the boots. How anyone could walk in the disgusting things she did not know. It was wrong, not being able to feel the flow of life energy through her feet.

Na'dia looked at her reflection in the mirror on the inside of the storage locker, and sighed. She looked so plain without her hair beading and feathers. Ninat had taken over an hour to remove all the braiding and decorations, and rubbed oil into her hair to remove the kinks from her braids. She sighed again, and pulled a fatigue cap over her head, to hide the plain state of her hair.

She rolled up her loincloth and beads, and shoved them into her right thigh pocket.

Her last act was to arm herself – taking the Wasp revolver and the M30 machine gun she had stashed in the locker. She buckled the revolver holster to her left thigh, slung the M30 over her shoulder and close the locker door. Na'dia sighed for a third time, and released the glamour that hid her from sight. Now came the fun part.

Walking across the concrete apron, all she could feel was a prickling of sweat between her shoulder blades. She ambled over to the Avatar longhouse – the sign proclaiming it as the 'Laughing Palulukan' still hung outside the main entrance, but it was no longer set up as a combination of sleeping quarters and public house. Instead, it was now functioning as a command centre. She could hear tactical chatter coming from the communications console as patrols checked in, and what were clearly officers were grouped around a plotting table.

This was not what she was looking for. Where were the humans and their Avatars? And where was her sensei, the palulukan? Where were all the link units to support this many Avatars?

The Avatars left Na'dia alone, although she noticed a few of the males checking her out. She played up their interest by rolling her hips and lashing her tail as she walked – she might as well as use what protective coloration she had. She could feel the eyes of the more alert soldiers lingering on her hands, just making sure that she had the five fingers of a Na'vi/human hybrid, not the four of a true Na'vi.

There was no-one in the decanting room when she entered. Na'dia took up a Na'vi exo-pack, checked the high pressure carbon dioxide/hydrogen sulphide cylinder, and put it on, ready to enter the Earth-like atmosphere of the administration building. She gave thanks that she was not a tall Na'vi, so she only had to worry about ducking through doors, not avoiding all the pipes and cables running through the corridors.

The human captives were in the mess hall, guarded by two of the uniltìranyu soldiers as they ate their evening meal. One of them leered at her, "Hey, babe! Where have you been all my life?"

She declined to respond, just giving him the finger, and silently mouthed one word - rotate. Na'dia did not trust herself to reply in English – although she had recovered her ability to speak both English and Ukrainian, she now spoke both with a strong Na'vi accent.

The other soldier slapped his mate on the back and laughed, "She's got your number, dude."

Na'dia heard the wry laughter of the first soldier echo behind her as she descended the stairs back down to the biolab and the decanting room. She had noticed that none of the link units were active and had not seen any humans other than the captives. Wherever they were, they weren't in Hell's Gate.

She was hanging up her exo-pack in the decanting room, when the door opened to allow a female uniltìranyu in. Na'dia turned in alarm towards the intruder, who asked in a puzzled voice, "Nadezdha? Is that you?"

On hearing those words in Ukrainian, Na'dia was plunged back in time and space - twenty years and five light-years. She could see in her mind's eye the high cheekbones, snub nose and freckles of her best friend Tatyana – the girl in whose memory she had named her daughter. The girl she had been with when the nuke detonated in Kiev – the girl who she had thought had died that night, along with five hundred thousand innocent people. The girl whose unmistakable features were replicated in those of the uniltìranyu standing shocked in front of her.

There was only one thing she could do.

Na'dia drew her revolver and aimed it at her head. "Tatyana Fyodorvna Petrova," she said in Na'vi accented Ukrainian. "Do as I say, and I will not shoot your Avatar."

The woman's face paled, as she said words Na'dia did not expect to hear, her voice shaking. "I'm not an Avatar, Nadezdha. This is me, Tatyana - Tania, in the flesh."

Na'dia gripped the revolver grip tighter, to stop it from shaking. "Lose the weapon," she ordered harshly.

Tania slowly removed her pistol from the holster, holding the grip between the tips of two fingers, and dropped it to the ground. "You're with them," she whispered. "You're with the blue monkeys."

"Shut up and back off," said Na'dia. Once the woman was clear, Na'dia moved forward to pick up the automatic pistol, not taking her eyes away. She ejected the magazine. She cycled the action – there was no round up the spout, and threw the weapon back to her childhood friend. "We are leaving now. If you try to warn anyone, or escape, I will blow a hole right through you. Do you understand?"

The frightened woman nodded once, and holstered her empty pistol.

"We are leaving now," ordered Na'dia. "We are the best of friends, just like we were in Kiev. Act like it."

They left the decanting room. When the door shut behind them, Na'dia holstered her Wasp revolver. "I can draw and fire this faster than you would believe. So don't try anything."

"Ok," answered Tania nervously.

"Is there anyone else here that can speak Ukrainian?" asked Na'dia. There was nothing stopping her from making a break for the perimeter, and she wanted to run. A little voice in her head was demanding to know what the fuck she was doing.

"No."

"Good. You can answer some questions as we walk," said Na'dia. "What are the Sky People doing here?"

"Sky People?" queried Tania, her eyes untrusting. "You don't even call us human - you really are a traitor."

"What have the _humans_ ever done for the People?" demanded Na'dia, her tone a whiplash of contempt. "They have killed us, murdered our children, destroyed our homes, and despoiled our world. So why are you here?"

"Earth is dying, Nadia," said Tania. "We need the unobtanium to survive. Earth has to have it."

"So my daughter must die so humanity can live," snapped Na'dia. "I named her for you – and you are happy to kill her and her world."

Tania turned in shock towards Na'dia, and stopped dead. "You have a daughter? How? There are hardly any humans on Pandora."

Na'dia almost spat out her words. "She is one of the People, not a filthy tawtute. Now keep moving, or I will kill you."

A voice yelled out, "Hey! You two!" A spotlight swung around and illuminated the two women. "What the fuck are you doing?"

They were almost at the perimeter of Hell's Gate. Na'dia spun, unslinging her M30, and hammered the butt into Tania's head, knocking her to the ground. She took aim at the spotlight, and fired a quick burst. The light died.

People started yelling, while Na'dia dropped her M30 and lifted Tania's comatose body over her shoulder. She focused, and faded out as more spotlights started sweeping across the apron towards her.


	9. Chapter 9

The first thing Na'dia did when she was clear of pursuit was to stop and pull off her boots. She must have hit Tania very hard. Her childhood friend had not stirred once.

She used all the skills she had learnt from her palulukan sensei, and her years living with the Na'vi, to mask her trail. Not that she expected that the uniltìranyu would be able to track her. No-one on Earth had those skills now. They relied on machines to do their thinking for them.

Na'dia had cut some razor-palm fronds, and used the Velcro-like plant to secure Tania's wrists behind her back. She could feel her start to move so she dumped the uniltìranyu on the ground, pulled off Tania's boots, and threw them into the undergrowth. That should stop her from running – her feet were soft and would be cut into ribbons if she tried anything. "Can you walk?" she asked.

Tania looked rather groggy as she stumbled to her feet. "Yes," she mumbled.

"Don't try to run, or make any noise," advised Na'dia, not unkindly. "You have no idea where you are, and there are many predators in the forest. You would not last a day by yourself."

She made Tania walk in front, telling her which direction to go. It was clear that the uniltìranyu was totally disoriented, so she had little fear that the woman would try to escape.

"In there," she ordered, pointing into the sheltered spot where Ninat and Zhess'ika were waiting.

Ninat was standing, her knife in her hand. "Who is this?" she asked in Na'vi. Her hostile eyes raked over the woman. Everything about her – clothes, posture, expression, smell – told her that the uniltìranyu was tawtute, and new to this world. There had been no news of a starship arriving, so the tawtute must be trying to take what was not theirs yet again.

"A captive," answered Na'dia. "How is Zhess'ika?"

"Sleeping, but recovering well," answered Ninat. "Why did you not kill the alien?"

"We need answers," stated Na'dia. "She can give them to us." She paused, not wanting to keep anything from her life mate. "There is something else. I know this woman. I could not kill her, for she is the one for whom I named our daughter."

Ninat turned to face Tania, and spoke to her in English. "You are Tat'yana. I am Ninat. My mate Na'dia has spoken to me of you. For her sake, if you do as we say, you may live."

Tania nodded, her eyes opening wide. "I understand," she replied. She had been looking back and forward between the two women, wondering what they were saying.

"No, you do not," snapped Na'dia. Her heart churned with a complex mix of emotions – joy, betrayal, dismay, sadness – all fighting for dominance. She roughly wrapped another razor-palm frond around Tania's ankles to stop her from running off. Switching to Na'vi, she said to Ninat, "We have to move at dawn. I am afraid I have stirred up a fire-wasp's nest. The uniltìranyu will pursue us, unless I draw them off." While she was talking, she stripped off the filthy clothes. Once she was naked, she snorted, "Pah! I stink."

"You may stink," commented Ninat, "But you still look pretty. You will take the pe'efzhe?"

"No. The ammunition is too heavy, even with my pa'li, and I will need to move fast," said Na'dia. "Head for the young hometree where we first joined in tsahaylu. It will be safe there." She pulled on her loincloth, and donned her breast ornaments. She sighed in relief. It had been horrible wearing those restrictive garments.

"There will be danger for Zhess'ika," said Ninat doubtfully. "Her healing will be more difficult."

"It cannot be helped."

"Will not the uniltìranyu desert her body when she sleeps?" asked Ninat. "She could betray us."

Shaking her head, Na'dia responded, "No. The tawtute have discovered how to pass their spirits through the eye of Eywa – or something very similar. Her spirit stays with her body when she sleeps. I will need to talk to her to learn more once we meet at our young hometree."

Ninat said, "You are going to war again. I cannot have you looking like a tawtute, with your hair unbound. You must be beautiful if you are going to fight."

Na'dia had become enough of a Na'vi over the years to understand that there was strength in looking your best, so she cheerfully submitted to having her hair braided and beaded. Ninat also insisted in painting Na'dia's face and body in full war paint, using all the symbols in red and black and yellow that proclaimed her to be the palulukan girl to one and all.

"You are really one of the savages," said Tania. "I could not believe it."

"Speak English, not Ukrainian," ordered Na'dia, in English. "It is rude to speak in a language that your host does not understand, and Ninat does not speak Ukrainian. And yes, I am Omaticaya."

"More than just Omaticaya," said Ninat, in the same language. "Na'dia is one of our greatest warriors, and is honoured by all in the clan. There, I have finished." One of Ninat's treasured possessions was a small hand mirror that Grace Augustine had given her at the school, only a few days before everything went wrong. She handed the mirror to her mate, so that she could inspect her face.

"You haven't changed much," said Tania acerbically. "You always liked looking at yourself in the mirror."

"Irayo," said Na'dia, ignoring Tania's bitter comment. "You always spoil me, my love. My blades?"

Ninat passed her the harness carrying her two shortswords. Na'dia slipped it over her shoulders and did up the buckles that held it in place. They embraced briefly, and kissed. "Eywa ngahu," murmured Ninat lovingly.

"I will see you in one week," said Na'dia. "Eywa ngahu."

Tania blinked. Na'dia had seemed to blur and fade into the undergrowth. "How the fuck did she do that?"

"My Na'dia has many skills," said Ninat proudly. "Now, there is much for you to tell me, but why don't you start with how you first came to know my life-mate Na'dia."


	10. Chapter 10

"What does the trace analyser say?" asked the patrol leader.

"Hold on a moment," said the soldier, peering at the data screen on a gun-like device. "The readings have to stabilise before it gives definitive results."

"I thought you said you got some good readings off those boots," sniped the patrol leader.

Na'dia heard the soldier muttered something under his breath, but she couldn't quite make out the words. She was sure, however, those words related to either the patrol leader's ancestry, his personal habits or his aberrant sexuality.

The patrol consisted of seven soldiers, armed with a mix of light machine guns, assault rifles with underslung grenade launchers, and heavy rocket-propelled grenades with shaped charge warheads – the last, no doubt, for dealing with some of the more formidably armoured specimens of Pandoran wildlife.

"There!" said the soldier with the trace analyser, whatever that was, pointing with one hand while keeping his eyes on the screen. "Ten metres that way."

Perhaps the tawtute weren't as stupid as they usually were. If Na'dia remembered correctly, that was almost exactly where she had thrown Tania's boots. It seemed the trace analyser was doing a reasonable job of following her trail.

Another soldier went cautiously into the bush, in the direction that trace analyser guy was pointing. He emerged about twenty seconds later, holding a stick thrust into a boot, and waved it in front of the trace analyser.

"That is Petrova's boot," said the soldier. "The trace signs are positive, and there is no sign of blood. She was probably alive when it was last on her foot." He frowned, manipulated some of the controls for a couple of seconds, adding, "The secondary readings identify another individual – I think it is Na'vi, but there is something strange about the diagnostics. The readings are quite strong, all around here, almost as if...no, that's ridiculous. The damn thing must be playing up again."

Na'dia made a quick mental calculation. Ninat would not be able to travel quickly with both Zhess'ika and Tania. At their current rate of progress, the aliens would catch them in less than a day. She had to do something now. Besides, it would be polite to let the aliens know how accurate their tracking machine was. No doubt it was already picking up on her scent, no matter how tightly she was controlling her scent glands.

One of the other grunts commented _sotto voce_, "Do you reckon the blue monkeys are going to eat Petrova?"

Now she was angry. The People did not eat their own – even tawtute uniltìranyu – although her palulukan memories informed her that Na'vi tasted very pleasant, almost like yerik, with a lingering aftertaste. She drew her swords, the metal ringing ever so softly.

"What was that?" snapped the patrol leader, his ears flicking towards the unnatural sound. Na'dia did not give him any time to do anything else.

She stepped out onto the track, screaming, "Yaaaaa!" The razor sharp edge of her titanium alloy blade swung true, shearing through the trace analyser and severing three of the operator's fingers. Before he had an opportunity to react to his wounding, Na'dia allowed the energy of her first blow to spin her around, the back edge of the blade in her left hand slashing through his throat. A fountain of blood exploded forward from the corpse, some spraying into her open mouth. Her tongue exploded in delicious hot, salty sensation, and all she could see was red.

The patrol leader took a couple of quick steps backwards and raised his assault rifle – he could not fire for fear of hitting his own men. He saw the Na'vi swing her deadly blades twice more, felling two more of his men with single blows – one a thrust angled up under the rib cage, the other a vicious disemboweling slash across his belly.

He gritted his teeth in a savage grin – in a moment he would have a clear shot at this bitch. His finger tightened on the trigger, but then something out of his experience happened. He blinked slightly, and the unearthly apparition faded away, almost vanishing before his eyes.

The three surviving soldiers started to spray fire through the undergrowth, one of them letting loose with a couple of grenades from his underslung launcher.

The patrol leader did not fire a shot, instead yelling, "Cease fire! Cease fire!"

Na'dia's heart was pounding with excitement. Some of the shots had come perilously close to her – these soldiers were good, their performance no doubt enhanced by the heightened senses of their Avatar bodies. She was going to enjoy killing these prey.

"Where the fuck did the savage come from?" swore one of the soldiers, his weapon sweeping from side to side, trying to pick up on the slightest noise or movement. "The bitch fucked Khan, Dubois and Stirling."

"Stow it," commanded the patrol leader. "Whatever she was, she wasn't stupid. The first thing she did was take out the trace analyser."

Na'dia thought to herself that their leader also was not stupid. She was standing safely behind a tree, out of their direct line of fire. She called out in English, "Dreamwalker! You do not belong here. Return to Hell's Gate and leave our world, or the People will slay you, as I slew your three friends."

"I'm afraid I cannot do that," said the patrol leader, giving a hand signal to his men to stand fast. "You have one of our people. Is she still alive?"

"She is my captive," answered Na'dia. "If you stop your noisy men from trying to outflank me, and return to Hell's Gate now, I give you my word as a warrior that the Omaticaya will treat Tat'yana Fyodorvna Petrova with honour, and keep her safe from harm, if she gives her parole."

"What surety will a nameless warrior give to keep her word and not harm our friend?" demanded the patrol leader.

"The People have little faith in the honour of the Sky People," answered Na'dia. "My word should be enough, but if you want surety, you hold our loyal friends captive. If you do not harm them, or any other captives you may take, then the People will not harm our captives. If you do not, our vengeance will be swift and terrible. That should be surety enough for a faithless tawtute."

After a few moments consideration, the patrol leader answered, "I accept your terms, and will convey them to our leadership."

One of the soldiers protested, "Boss...what about Petrova?"

"Stow it," he snapped. "We can't track her now, not without the tracer. Back to Hell's Gate."

"I will be watching," called out Na'dia, and laughed. She could almost hear the soldiers flinching at her merriment.

Na'dia trailed the remains of the patrol back to Hell's Gate. Their leader was as good as his word, so perhaps these uniltìranyu would not be as treacherous as the tawtute usually were.

She spent the next couple of days scouting the proximity of Hell's Gate, trailing the patrols, and making sure that none followed her trail back to Ninat.

There was only one thing that actively worried her – where was the palulukan, and her mate and cubs?


	11. Chapter 11

She was being watched.

It wasn't that surprising. Na'dia had expected this for several days, despite the effort she had been taking in masking her trail. Fortunately, the water levels in the streams and rivers had lowered, making them safer to swim in or cross. She had also made much use of aerial pathways as well, leaping from tree to tree, or falling from the very top of the canopy.

Only one thing would have surprised her – if the watcher had been uniltìranyu, then she would have been surprised. No, not surprised – shocked.

As it was, she knew exactly who was watching her.

The palulukan flowed out of the forest towards her, stopping directly in front of her. She gave Na'dia a lick with her long, abrasive tongue, as Na'dia took her queue and linked it with that of her sensei.

"_Self greets Na'dia."_

Na'dia returned the greeting, and enquired as to the health of her mate and cubs.

"_Mate and cubs safe. Self moved range away from human place when dreamwalkers came."_

She expressed curiosity that the palulukan did not fight to keep her range at Hell's Gate. All Na'vi knew that palulukan were intensely territorial. Furthermore, her sensei had become addicted to human information technology.

"_Self discussed with Max. Self said that selves would not interfere in war between clans of two legs."_

"What?" shouted Na'dia at the top of her voice, angry at her sensei for not defending Pandora against the aliens.

"_Na'dia is being stupid. Dreamwalkers may once have been human too, just like Na'dia. Now they belong to Eywa, so selves bound by treaty with Na'vi, unless dreamwalkers despoil range. Self cannot interfere, no matter how irritating loss of computer is."_

Numbed with shock, Na'dia sank to the ground. The uniltìranyu were working for humans, preparing Pandora for the resumption of mining. That could be the only possible reason why they were here – the cost of so many Avatars, let alone the expense of a starship voyage, could not be justified by any other purpose. They had to stop them, kill them all before they despoiled her world.

"_Self repeats that Na'dia is not thinking. Dreamwalkers are not Avatars. Their spirits live in their bodies, just as Na'dia does. Thus, dreamwalkers are two legs, and subject to the treaty that selves made with two legs many years ago." _

"What of our humans?" demanded Na'dia, speaking aloud for emphasis. She felt that her sensei had betrayed not just her, but also the humans in Hell's Gate that supported the Na'vi.

"_Self helped Max and others to escape, but they chose to return to human place. Max said that survival prospects were better there, even as captives."_

Had the world gone insane? Furious, angry thoughts were racing through Na'dia's head when they were interrupted.

"_Na'dia has tasted blood of own kind. Self can feel her lust, even when not joined in tsahaylu. Be careful."_

With that message, the palulukan broke tsahaylu and faded back into the forest, leaving a stunned Na'dia behind. It seemed that she was being left to handle this crisis or war or whatever it was by herself.


	12. Chapter 12

She was late.

It was most unlike Na'dia to be late, thought Ninat. She wasn't that worried. Ninat would have known if something had happened to her life-mate, but she still couldn't help worrying. It was, after all, a day past a week since she had last seen her.

At least Zhess'ika had improved to point that she would be able to fly her ikran tomorrow. Then Zhake and Ney'tiri would know of the landing of the uniltìranyu at Hell's gate.

Ninat had learnt little from the uniltìranyu woman, Tania. She had been most close-mouthed – most unlike a uniltìranyu. In Ninat's experience, it was hard to get one to shut up – Zhake could talk the middle leg off an 'angitsa. Na'dia had been very talkative too, at least until she had formed the bond with the palulukan. Then it was difficult to get more than one or two words out of her in a day. She was still inclined to be silent when amongst the People, unless there were only a very few present that she knew well.

She had tried to talk to the woman, but Tania had jumped everytime she had tried. It was almost as though she was afraid that Ninat would hurt her. It was only when Zhess'ika had talked to her in Inglisi, that Tania had said more than a few words – and even those words were suspicious. It seemed that Tania was shocked that a former human like Zhess'ika could 'turn native', as she so insultingly put it.

Zhess'ika had almost bitten off Tania's head when she had used those words, subjecting her to a long lecture that used many Inglisi words that Ninat did not know – but she had not needed to know those words. The tone of voice that Zhess'ika used was that used to scold a naughty and ignorant child. Hearing Zhess'ika's voice like that transported Ninat back to her own childhood, as she remembered the many scoldings that she had received from her mother when she had done something stupid.

It was strange, though, how hostile Na'dia had been towards the uniltìranyu woman – especially for one that she had honoured by giving her name to their daughter. It was almost as though she was an enemy of the blood – which Ninat supposed the uniltìranyu was.

Her ears pricked. Familiar footprints were approaching.

As soon as her life mate appeared, unwounded, Ninat greeted her with relief. "Oel ngati kameie."

Na'dia sketched the greeting in return, but her expression shocked Ninat. She had never seen such a look of despair on her lover's face. She ran towards Na'dia, demanding, "What is wrong?" Ninat knew by the dried bloodstains on her skin that Na'dia had slain again, but embraced her nonetheless.

"My sensei...she will not help us against the tawtute," said Na'dia haltingly, leaning into her lover. Ninat could feel Na'dia trembling from exhaustion. She whispered, "She said that they are Na'vi, so the palulukan cannot interfere."

Ninat could feel Na'dia's skin stretched tight over her ribs. It seemed that she had hardly eaten in the last week. This had happened once before, years ago, when Na'dia had fought against the tawtute. She had become so obsessed by fighting that she had ceased to eat. This was not good.

"It will be alright, my love," said Ninat. "The People have defeated the tawtute before, without the palulukan, so we can do it again." She took her life-mate by the arm, adding, "Come, let us share a meal, and you can tell me of the tawtute."

"I would like that," said Na'dia quietly, and allowed Ninat to lead her inside the young Hometree – where she had dwelt yeas ago, after being expelled from the Omaticaya. When she entered the space, she smiled slightly, remembering that this was where Ninat had first made tsahaylu with her. The smile disappeared as soon as she caught sight of their captive, who was talking quietly to Zhess'ika.

"Why is she not bound?" demanded Na'dia harshly, her face full of distrust. "She is tawtute."

"So were you once," replied Ninat. "Look at her. She would not last a day in the forest, and she knows it. There is nowhere for her to go, so what harm could she do?"

Na'dia studied the captive's face. Her features were so familiar, they were haunting. "I suppose you are right," she allowed reluctantly.

The four women squatted around the firepit, eating in silence. Na'dia found the food bland and uninteresting, so to distract herself from the taste she spoke to Tania. "How are you here, alive? I thought you died on L'vivs'ka Square, the day the bomb exploded."

Tania had not really believed that the Na'vi woman who looked like her childhood friend was actually Nadia Khudoshin in a Na'vi body, until now. Only one person had known where she had been when the nuke destroyed the centre of Kiev. Hesitatingly, she began to speak.

"I don't remember what happened after the blast wave hit, until I woke up in a field hospital," said Tania. "Both my legs and my left arm were amputated. The next twenty years I lived on minimum state benefits, restricted to a wheelchair. The only job I knew, as a dancer, the bomb took from me. I had no other skills."

"Then I was contacted by the RDA. It turned out my DNA was suitable for producing an Avatar – but with a difference. They offered me a real body, one that I could always live in, a body that could walk, without using a link unit. There was only one catch – I could never return to Earth. My human body had to die."

"I had nothing to lose. I signed a contract. Six months later I was transferred into this body, and the RDA started to train me as a soldier. Almost all the people at Hell's Gate have a similar story – they too had nothing to lose by abandoning their human bodies to come here, and everything to gain."

Na'dia could not help notice the bitterness in Tania's voice. She was not the same person that had been her friend at the ballet school in Kiev – but then, Na'dia could say the same about herself. There had almost been a decade of healing for Na'dia, living as one of the People. Her friend had lived that time bearing the cost of the injuries inflicted upon her.

Ninat commented in Na'vi, "Your friend is truthful about not retreating from her uniltìranyu body. I shook her while she slept – she woke immediately. Not like Zhake when he first came to the People, before he passed through the eye of Eywa."

"Zhess'ika, are you ready to fly?" asked Na'dia. "I need you to take word of the tawtute to the Omaticaya tomorrow."

The wounded woman made a reluctant face. "I would rather not," said Zhess'ika. "But it should only be flight of an hour or two. I think I will be able to do that."

"You will be fine," said Ninat confidently, "If you don't do anything stupid – like fly in front of another dreamwalker with a gun."

"Thank you very much," riposted Zhess'ika, a smile on her face.

"I saw many hundreds of dreamwalkers," said Na'dia, ignoring the cheerful wordplay. "I did not get an exact count. I could not see into the buildings. There may be many more – a shuttle landed while I watched, and even more dreamwalkers emerged."

"We should wait for Zhake and Ney'tiri before attempting anything more," advised Ninat, her playful expression replaced by a serious frown.

"What is going to happen to me?" asked Tania anxiously. She had been watching the three Na'vi exchange words without understanding, her head swivelling from one to the other.

"I have given my word to one of your officers," replied Na'dia in English, "That if you do not attempt to escape, you will be treated with honour. I expect that you will be taken to the camp of the Omaticaya, once Zhake has received word from us. The People are not savages, unlike humans."

"How do I know you are telling the truth?" demanded Tania. This barbarous looking Na'vi woman who had the features of her childhood friend did not sound like her. The response that Na'dia gave her only confirmed Tania's feeling that Na'dia had changed beyond all recognition.

"If the tawtute officer had not accepted my word, I would have slain him and the rest of his patrol, instead of the three that I did kill," replied Na'dia, gazing coolly into Tania's eyes.

The ruthlessness of Na'dia's words shocked Tania. She had no doubt that Na'dia would have slaughtered the entire patrol with no compunction at all. There was no trace of the young dancer in Na'dia's alien golden eyes. She hissed, "I do not know you any more."

Na'dia tilted her head as she considered Tania's words, watching her curiously. They were not the words she expected of a human. Perhaps the palulukan was right.


	13. Chapter 13

The following morning, when Zhess'ika had flown away on her ikran, Na'dia observed Tania watching the familiar sight – at least as far as Na'dia was concerned – with envious eyes.

"How many dreamwalkers remain in orbit?" asked Na'dia. She did not expect an answer from the tawtute, but then again there was always the chance of a surprise.

"Tatyana Fyodorvna Petrova, Private, AVTR1089X," answered Tania. "I swore an oath not to divulge information to the enemy."

"Name, rank, serial number," responded Na'dia. "The RDA does not apply the Geneva Convention to the Na'vi. They do not recognise the People as sentient beings – or even apply the protections that Earth law offers to domestic animals. The tawtute seek to exterminate us like insects. Why should the People respect your silence?"

Tania offered no answer, merely clamping her mouth shut. The flexing of her jaw muscles was clearly visible.

Na'dia continued, "I was captured by RDA forces in the last war, and tortured."

"I do not believe you!" snapped Tania. She rubbed her wrists, which still bore the marks of the razor palm fronds used to stop her from attempting an escape overnight. While Na'dia did not think she would do so, there was no point in taking chances.

There was a simple answer. The fingers of Na'dia's right hand flew across her battered pe'dehayu, worn on the customary place on her left forearm, like some form of high-tech bowguard. "Watch!" she commanded, holding the display screen so that Tania could see the recorded video.

Tania recoiled from the display, which showed a human soldier brutalising a bound Na'dia with his steel-capped boots and heavy knout, within a human building. "This recording was taken from the Hell's Gate surveillance video." She let the video run, until it showed an Avatar in fatigues enter, distracting the human. Tania was surprised to recognise the Avatar as Zhess'ika, when she was horrified again by what was shown on the screen.

Na'dia tapped the pe'dehayu, ending the video playback. "Yes, I pulled off his head," said Na'dia bluntly. "I hope you realise the RDA will not treat you any differently to how that tawtute treated me. You, and your friends in Hell's Gate, are not human. You gave up those rights when you signed your emploment contract and transferred your spirits into Avatar bodies. As far as human law is concerned, you are dead, and your bodies are nothing more than assets of the company, to be used and disposed of as they choose."

The shock on Tania's face showed that Na'dia's message was being heard - and understood.

"Yes," said Na'dia. "You heard what the human commander said to Zhess'ika. I was not real - I was just a thing. The RDA could do whatever they liked to me. Do not expect loyalty from them - you can expect no other outcome than betrayal."

Her captive turned away, unable to deal with what she had just been told. Na'dia left her alone to ponder her words, although about ten minutes later Ninat went to talk to Tania.

"You must be uncomfortable," said Ninat. "It is hot and sticky, and those clothes do not allow your body to breathe. I do not know how you can bear the smell of your own body. It is bad enough that we must smell you also." She grabbed Tania's hand and dragged her off into the forest. Na'dia knew that there was a very pleasant pool fed by a hot spring in the direction she was being taken.

Two hours later, two Na'vi women reappeared - one of them blushing, and trying to cover her breasts with her hands.

Na'dia laughed at Tania's attempt to protect her modesty. "You wore about the same on the beach, when we spent our summer holiday at Yalta. I don't remember that you were that body conscious then – your bikini covered less than mine."

Tania snapped, "I was seventeen then, and whole."

Nodding, Na'dia agreed, "The disfigurement was hard to bear, after the nuke. I remember what it was like, but there is no reason to feel shame now. Not here."

Ninat said, "She is very pretty, especially now that she is dressed properly." Somehow, Ninat had not only made some clothing from the cloth of Tania's fatigues, but had also managed to elaborately bead and braid her hair. "It is a shame that most of the young men in the clan have Chosen, or are about to Chose. Your friend would attract much attention."

The Omaticaya, like many of the clans that had fought against the humans, had suffered heavy casualties – particularly amongst the unmated young men. As a result, there were many young women with little prospect of finding mates.

"How many of the dreamwalkers are young men?" asked Ninat. "Surely most of them have not mated."

As Tania spluttered with embarrassment, Na'dia commented drily, "From what I saw, there seemed to be at least ten males for every female." She knew where Ninat was going with this conversation.

"Good," said the ever-practical Ninat. "If we can make peace with the dreamwalkers, many of our young women may look to them for mates, if Na'dia does not kill them all. There has been much envy of Ney'tiri's good fortune with Zhake."

Na'dia said drily, "I will endeavour only to kill the ugly and unkind dreamwalkers, so that the young women of the Omaticaya may not be deprived of potential mates. I would not wish them to suffer unduly."

Tania laughed out loud, despite herself. What she had heard sounded just like the girl who had been her best friend. Her next words only confirmed it.

"The young women of the Omaticaya will face stiff competition from Tania," added Na'dia. "When we were young, she always had a roving eye for pretty men."

The good natured banter was interrupted by the sounds of two ikran, flapping to kill their speed and land in the trees above. Na'dia looked up to recognise the two riders – Zhake and Txep'ean.


	14. Chapter 14

"We captured one of the dreamwalkers," announced Na'dia. "Except they are not really dreamwalkers."

Ninat interrupted, "You mean you captured her, my love."

Zhake and Txep'ean half-turned to look at Tania, who was looking a little subdued. After all, both the males were impressive specimens of Na'vi malehood, carrying lethal-looking bows and knives. Zhake commented, "If you didn't see her hands, one would mistake her for one of the People." He sighed. "I had hoped that we would not have to fight the tawtute again."

"The palulukan said they were not truly tawtute, but belonged to Eywa instead," said Na'dia. "Rather than full-blown war, perhaps we could subvert them to the way of the People." Her eyes slid across to Ninat, adding, "My sister had a useful suggestion."

"Oh?" asked Txep'ean, a little cautiously. He had been the victim of some of Ninat's useful suggestions before, and had the scars – mental and physical – to prove it.

Na'dia said bluntly, "The Omaticaya have a surplus of young women, while the dreamwalkers are similarly blessed with a surplus of young men." The two men spluttered in surprise as she continued, "When I was in Hell's Gate, many of the men admired my form, passing favourable comments on my appearance – despite my body being covered by tawtute garments. I think that they feel a lack of female company." She was definitely not going to repeat any of their comments in front of Txep'ean. He was normally easy going, but he was incredibly protective of both of his mates. The slightest implication that an unattached male was viewing either of them with lustful eyes would see him take violent action.

"I wonder..." murmured Zhake. "A combination of _Mutiny on the Bounty_ and Thanksgiving – backed up with the threat of force. It might work, and cost many fewer lives than all-out war. On both sides."

Txep'ean protested, "Is it wrong to play with the emotions of our young people? To use them as pawns in the war against the tawtute?"

"Make love, not war," countered Na'dia. "I would not suggest that we trade our young people for peace. Instead, we use the prospect of winning life-mates to twist the dreamwalkers against the way of the Sky People. All people – tawtute or Na'vi – long for love, no matter how much they would deny it. It is a part of what we are."

"There is something else," said Ninat. "The dreamwalkers do not have the tsumuke'awsiteng, the circle of sisters. They do not know of Uniluke, and do not know of how to partake of the ceremony that keeps women of the People...reasonable. The women that they do have will start to become difficult, and cause troubles with the men. Fights will start soon amongst them." She grinned at Na'dia, adding, "My sister tells me that it is very different being a dreamwalker that leaves her body. Na'dia was surprised at how strange she felt after passing through the eye of Eywa, here on this world. The tawtute may not know this."

Na'dia nodded. She had speculated that that the impact of Na'vi female hormones on cognition and behaviour was reduced by returning to a human body every night, so this problem had not arisen in the Avatar program. Since she had passed through the eye of Eywa, if she wasn't receiving Uniluke, or alternatively having sex and sharing tsahaylu with her life-mates, her temper became extremely volatile and vicious. Not that this was necessarily a problem – if she was busy slaughtering human soldiers bent on killing Na'vi, it was a distinct advantage being a little cranky.

"Look at Tania," said Na'dia. "Already, she seems twitchy and agitated – beyond what one would expect from being plunged into a new environment as a captive of the People."

The four Na'vi paused to gaze at the captive dreamwalker. It was clear from her twitching of her tail that she was feeling the whiplash of uncontrolled female hormones.

"Tania," asked Zhake in English, "What have you been eating at Hell's Gate?"

She couldn't see any harm in answering this question. "Dried ration packs from Earth, with some veg from the Avatar garden," she answered. "The MRE packs taste like shit. I can't complain about prison food - what you've been giving me is much nicer. If command hadn't started supplementing rations with real food from the garden..." Tania stopped abruptly, realising that she had started to wander into dangerous territory.

Na'dia rested her hand on Tania's shoulder. "It's ok, Tania," she said quietly. "We understand that it is difficult for you here. We will try to make you feel more at home."

The conversation switched back to Na'vi, as the four Na'vi discussed the best way forward to implement the subversion strategy.

That evening, Ninat asked of Na'dia, "Tania was your lover, when you were human, was she not? Like a sister of the tsumuke'awsiteng?" Na'dia's life-mate had been fascinated by human behaviour, and had plundered her knowledge for every detail that she could obtain. It was just as well that Na'dia had trained in cultural anthropology after she could no longer dance – otherwise she could never have satisfied her curiosity. On seeing a slight hesitation in her lover's face, she said, "I'm not jealous, Na'dia. I am sure of your love, as a human could never be."

Reassured, Na'dia said, "Yes, Tania was one of my lovers when I was a girl, before my human life was burnt away."

"One?" teased Ninat. "How many did you have?"

Na'dia's face was suddenly burning. "A few," she admitted. "I don't remember the exact number. It was many years and another life ago."

"Faithless tawtute," accused Ninat with a broad smile on her face, which was quickly replaced by a serious expression. "I think you should introduce Tania to Uniluke tonight," she said firmly.

"But I was looking forward to spending it with you...just you," said Na'dia, although those plans had been disrupted by Txep'ean electing not to return to the Omaticaya with Zhake. Ninat's suggestion was a huge break in custom. The Omaticaya only shared Uniluke between sisters of the tsumuke'awsiteng. To invite a stranger...it was just not done.

"It is more important that we start on the plan to turn the dreamwalkers," said Ninat firmly. She had been thinking of this for some days. "Besides, I do have an ulterior motive."

"What motive?" asked Na'dia suspiciously.

Ninat looked a little shamefaced as she admitted, "I want to start on getting pregnant with Txep'ean, tonight. If we share Uniluke, I would have to wait at least another month before I could be sure of catching. I don't want to wait any longer, even if there is to be a war. I hope you don't mind."

Na'dia leant forward to kiss her life-mate gently. "Of course I don't mind," she told Ninat. "I want you to be happy."

"Good," smiled Ninat. "I brewed some antidote yesterday, and the kali'weya is in that basket. Off you go." She made some shooing gestures.

"Tania," said Na'dia. "Could you grab that basket and come with me? Ninat and Txep'ean would like some privacy."

The captive looked curiously at her captor, but nonetheless did as she was asked, and followed Na'dia in the direction of the hot pool. "I thought Ninat and, um, Txep'ean were your mates. Shouldn't you be with them?"

"They are," answered Na'dia. "But Ninat wants to have another child, so she wishes to mate with Txep'ean tonight. As I should not have another child – I almost died bearing my lovely daughter – I cannot be with them tonight."

"Oh," said Tania. There was not much she could say to this confidence.

Na'dia went on to say, "I must undertake the ceremony of Uniluke tonight, so that I can share the love of Txep'ean without becoming pregnant. But I cannot partake of Uniluke alone. Normally, I would ask it of my sisters, but they are not here." She grinned broadly at Tania. "So if you don't mind, I thought I would share Uniluke with you."

"Is it going to hurt?" asked Tania warily. She had heard horror stories about primitive tribal customs.

"Actually, it's quite pleasant," said Na'dia. That had to be the understatement of the year – no, millennia. "It's more like a girl's night out than anything else, but instead of drinking Cosmopolitans, we drink tirea'tutee. We still talk a lot, though. Oh, here we are."

The two women sat down on the grass beside the pool. Na'dia opened the pottery jar she had been carrying, and dipped in the matching bowl, half-filling it with a clear liquid. She took a healthy swig and passed the bowl across to Tania, ordering, "Drink this."

"Holy fuck!" exclaimed Tania as the potent brew burnt its way down her gullet. She blinked several times, obviously feeling the mild hallucinogenic effects of the spirit. "That's got some hell of a kick." It was clear she liked it, for she took another mouthful, and swallowed it, before asking, "I thought the Na'vi only bonded with one mate, but you have two. Isn't that against local custom?"

"Yes," said Na'dia, and took the bowl back, and drank deeply. "It's a long story." She took a deep breath, and began to tell Tania of how she became one of the People. The bowl passed back and forth many times as she related her story, which she finished with the birth of her child.

"You named your daughter after me?" asked Tania incredulously. It was clear that the tirea'tutee was having an effect on her, for she was swaying back and forth, and her eyes were enormously dilated and glassy.

"Yes," said Na'dia. "I wanted a small part of you to live on, so I have told my daughter much about you, so that she knows you as well."

Happy tears were leaking down Tania's face as she tried to say something, but could not.

Na'dia touched her friend gently on the shoulder. "I treasure your love, Tania, though it was many years ago. That is why I did not kill you."

Tania giggled, "I'm not sure that is a very romantic thought, Nadia. But I am honoured by your regard."

"There are things I must tell you, Tania," said Na'dia. "You are Na'vi now, not human. You have the same soul as you did as a human, but you cannot help to think other than as a Na'vi woman. It is very confusing at first, but Eywa willing you will adapt to it."

"But I am your enemy!" exclaimed Tania.

"May be you are, and may be you aren't," replied Na'dia.

"What kind of answer is that?" asked Tania. She had picked up the end of her queue, and was closely examining the waving pink tendrils, her eyes crossing as she held it too close to her face. "Is it true what they say about, um, tsahaylu? You know, the bond. We've heard the sex is awesome."

"Yes, the sex is totally awesome," said Na'dia, "But once you share tsahaylu with another Na'vi, you are mated to him for life. So you must chose your mate with care, and not use it to hook up for a fast fuck. It's not like Earth, where you can get a quickie divorce over the Net."

"But you have two mates – Ninat and Txep'ean. How did that happen?"

Na'dia replied, "I think it was because I was bisexual as a human. There were no songs of it happening before – I just think I was lucky to find two special people." She tilted her head to one side, remembering the time they first joined in tsahaylu. "Actually, Ninat Chose me, and I Chose Txep'ean."

"Would you ever leave them?" asked Tania curiously.

There was only one answer that Na'dia could give. "Only when I die and join with Eywa, and even then I won't be without them forever."

"You believe in the native deity?"

"No, I don't believe," said Na'dia succinctly. "There cannot be belief when one knows."

"You really passed through the eye of Eywa?"

It seemed that they had entered a Na'vi version of Twenty Questions, but Na'dia suspected she wouldn't get very many more. Tania was starting to look a little queasy. "Yes," said Na'dia, passing the bowl back to Tania.

Tania held the bowl briefly, and carefully placed it on the ground, only spilling half the contents. "If I have any more to drink I'm going to throw," she said.

"Good," said Na'dia, who had been wondering how much more Tania could drink. It seemed that her legs were indeed hollow, just like she had been as a human. "Now comes the fun part of Uniluke." Na'dia crawled over to the basket, opened it and quickly shoved her hand in, to pull out the kali'weya – an large arthropod with entirely too many legs and a vicious looking stinger. Na'dia had mastered the art of holding the creature without getting stung many years ago, no matter how intoxicated she was.

Before Tania could object, Na'dia held the kali'weya against Tania's arm, and pressed on the shell segment that triggered the stinging action. "Ow!" shouted Tania. "Ow, ow, ow! What the fuck did you do that for!" She rubbed her arm where she had been stung.

Quickly, for the venom was extremely rapid in action, Na'dia allowed the arthropod to sting her as well, and shoved it back into the basket. "You'll see," she said, welcoming the heat of the venom swelling in her breasts and groin, and the magical clearing of her head of the effects of the tirea'tutee.

"Oh," whispered Tania. "I feel...quite strange. Hot, even." She started to remove her loincloth and breast ornaments. "I'm wearing far too many clothes." As soon as she wriggled out of her garments, she started to moan, "Oh...My...God...Fuck!" One hand was cupping and squeezing one of her breasts, while the other was clamped between her thighs, as Tania squirmed with lust, her eyes shut. "Grrrrrr!" she growled.

Now, Na'dia was naked too. She pulled Tania towards her, kissing her – not gently, but savagely, her tongue plundering the depths of Tania's mouth. Tania responded by wrestling her to the ground, and that was the last coherent thought Na'dia experienced as her body erupted in an explosion of animal desire.


	15. Chapter 15

One of the best parts of Uniluke was relaxing in a hot pool the following morning, reflected Na'dia. All the tensions in her muscles were washed away after the frenzy of last night's lust, and she felt as though she could float here all day, doing nothing.

Evidently Tania felt much the same way, although the expression on her face was more stunned than relaxed. "How often do you do Uniluke?" she asked weakly.

"Twice a month," answered Na'dia. "It's one of the advantages to being a Na'vi female. We don't menstruate, but unless we participate in Uniluke we are fertile all the time. One of my sisters – Peyral – conceives at the drop of a hat. She's about to have her seventh child in ten years. Peyral says she only has to look at her mate Tareyu to get knocked up, although she is the exception rather than the rule. If we didn't have Uniluke, Pandora's forests would be buried under billions of Na'vi."

"Oh," said Tania. "Just out of curiosity, how does Uniluke rate to normal Na'vi sex?"

"Hmmm," mused Na'dia. "They are very different experiences, but I suppose if you call normal heterosexual mumbo-jumbo with tsahaylu a ten, then Uniluke is about a six or seven. At least that's my opinion. You would get a different opinion from Ninat, though. Ninat prefers sex with women - she is about as gay as a Na'vi comes, although she never knocks back sex with Txep'ean. Then again, he is absolute dynamite in the sack, and he is hung like a...well, stallions would feel inadequate in comparison. Then again, most Na'vi men are."

"A six," muttered Tania, closing her eyes. "Unbelievable." She lay back in the pool and floated for a while, before she lifted her head again. "Just how big is big?" Na'dia indicated length and girth with her hands, almost causing Tania's eyes to pop out. "You're kidding!" exclaimed Tania.

"Nope," she said. "I can personally testify that it all fits inside, too. Not an inch is wasted."

"I gather you don't share Uniluke with just anyone," commented Tania, her face struck with awe.

Na'dia shook her head. "No," she said. "Except in unusual circumstances, Uniluke is only shared between the four sisters of a tsumuke'awsiteng. My sisters are Ninat, Peyral and Ney'tiri. The circle exists to look after each other, and our children – and keep our mates in line." She paused for a little while, before she added, "If you are wondering why there are four in a tsumuke'awsiteng, four is the lucky number in Na'vi society. And an adult kali'weya only carries enough venom to sting four women."

Tania said with a smile, "Thank you for being my unusual circumstance." There was a long silence until she asked, "What happens if you get stung without drinking the tirea'tutee?"

"A very unpleasant and painful death, taking about an hour," answered Na'dia. "Tirea'tutee only works for women, too. Men have to use another antidote - a glowworm that tastes horrible. The effects of a sting are very different."

"What effects?" asked Tania.

"They go on a spirit journey to find their totem animal," said Na'dia. "The ceremony - women undergo it too - is called Uniltaron, and it is very dangerous. It is a journey one must take to become an adult."

"I'm glad I'm not a man," said Tania. "I wouldn't have missed this for the world. I feel so good."

"There's a reason for that," commented Na'dia. "Uniluke keeps female hormone levels under control. If Na'vi women aren't having sex or celebrating Uniluke, we get very difficult and cranky. Think of it like PMS on steroids. Men avoid us when we get like that, if they want to live. So Uniluke is like a pressure valve for Na'vi society."

Tania swam slowly across the pool, seeking a cooler area of water. "What happens to me now?" she asked, once she found a more comfortable spot. She didn't look too worried now, not after Uniluke.

"I will take you to the place of the Omaticaya, where you will be taught the ways of the People," answered Na'dia. "I want you to meet my daughter, so you understand what is at stake, both for me, and the People. Once we are satisfied that you have learnt enough, you will be taken back to Hell's Gate, and returned to the dreamwalkers. I think they will need you by then."

They set out after noon. Tania was moved by the simple displays of affection between Ninat, Txep'ean and Na'dia, before he mounted his ikran. Unfortunately, she was so absorbed by this sight she neglected to notice Na'dia's pa'li stallion sidle up to her and lash out with a savage kick, just as Txep'ean flew off on his ikran. The blow struck her on the ass, and she went flying through the air to land face down in a pile of fresh and very sticky pa'li dung – placed there, she suspected, by the stallion.

Na'dia came running over to see if she was alright, and apart from a bruised ass and dignity, she was fine. "I should have warned you," said Na'dia. "My pa'li is not like others of its kind. It is evil and insane, mostly due to my influence."

"That figures," grumbled Tania, spitting out some dung from her mouth. "You always were an evil bitch."

"Go and wash, while we load the pa'li," advised Na'dia, ignoring the gratuitous comment.

The journey did not take long – the sun had not yet touched the horizon before they approached Hometree, and there were no further mishaps. She rode behind Ninat, on a gentle mare, as a huge rifle was resting in a pannier hung from the hindquarters of the stallion, leaving no room for a second rider. Tania had supposed that this must be the infamous pe'efzhe, or Big Fucking Gun in grunt argot – it was almost as big as Na'dia herself.

Ninat had chattered the entire time, pointing out different types of trees and animals, telling Na'dia what part each played in Na'vi life, making Tania repeat each name in Na'vi. She continually tested her, asking her to identify what seemed like every tree and creature in the forest. It was very different to her first experience as a captive of the Na'vi.

A young girl came running out to greet them. Na'dia flung herself off her pa'li to grab the girl in an all-embracing hug, swinging her through the air, not caring how she appeared to the casual onlooker. Somehow, through all the trials of her life, Na'dia had retained the love and joy of living that Tania had lost. At that moment, Tania's envy rose like bitter bile in her throat, hating her girlhood friend for what she had – the corrosive emotion threatening to choke her. Somehow, she managed to force the green monster down as Na'dia led her daughter to meet her.

"My Tat'yana," said Na'dia to her daughter, "This is the woman whose name you bear."

Tania said, "Hi." She immediately felt the greeting was inadequate, especially when the girl greeted her in return.

"I See you, Tat'yana," said the girl in English. She looked amazingly like Na'dia as a child, thought Tania – except she was blue. "Sa'nu told me you were tawtute – human, I mean, and passed into the embrace of Eywa."

Sa'nu – that must be Na'vi for mother. "Na'dia is right," said Tania, after she dismounted. "I died – or rather the human body I lived in died. Now I am here, and I am not sure what I am."

The girl smiled and said, "I'm sure you will find out."

The next few hours passed in a blur of faces and names, until she met the most beautiful Na'vi woman she had ever seen. This was Ney'tiri, the mate of Zhake'soolly, the clan leader of the Omaticaya.

Ney'tiri said solemnly, "My Zhake has asked me to train you in the ways of the Omaticaya. He bet me that I could not train you as taronyu – a hunter – as quickly as I taught him."

Zhake grinned, "Ney'tiri has one motto – learn fast, or die. All you have to do, Tania, is to stay alive for the next ninety days."

"Tania will learn faster than you, my Zhake," said Ney'tiri. "You are a skxawng – I am sure that she is much more intelligent than you."

Tania looked nervously for Na'dia, to see her standing just behind her. "I thought Na'dia would teach me."

"I am a terrible teacher," admitted Na'dia. "Just ask Ninat."

"Na'dia is better than she used to be," agreed Ninat. "Not that it is much of an improvement, except for teaching the children how to dance."

Na'dia said, "Irayo, my love. I'm afraid I have other things to do – but you will see me from time to time – and you will do something I will never do."

Tania swallowed her disappointment. "What will that be?" she asked.

"You'll find out," grinned Na'dia.

As it turned out, Ney'tiri managed to complete Tania's training in eighty-seven days, and she even lived through it – just.


	16. Chapter 16

The colonel was glad to be out of the madhouse that was Hell's Gate – to clear his head, he had taken out a patrol just to escape the damned place. There was no way he was going to allow himself to go stir-crazy.

The place was a keg of gunpowder, just waiting to blow wide open. He had to confine all the women to their sleeping quarters, just to stop them from inciting the men into fighting each other. Over a quarter of his soldiers had been carrying serious injuries from the fighting, many of them with knife wounds. He had to order all firearms to be carried unloaded, just to stop any 'accidental' discharge of weapons. That was a hell of a thing to have to do in a combat zone.

At least there hadn't been any more deaths from attacks by the Na'vi – although everyone knew they were out there. They had let it be known that they didn't like trace analysers – anyone carrying one suddenly found an arrow sprouting from the damn things, showing off their damn accuracy with their bows. And you never saw where they shot from.

The Na'vi had also let it be known that there were limits to how far they would let the humans patrol. Any attempt to go past their totem markers would end up in the patrol being taken out with the indigenous equivalent of tranquiliser darts – he supposed they must be using some form of blowpipe to deliver the damn things.

At least he got his troops back – the unconscious bodies of each patrol of ten that transgressed the Na'vi limits were dumped near the front gate, with a pottery jar full of antidote and a note with instructions on how much was required to counter the poison they used on the tranquiliser darts.

The morale of the troops was pretty damn close to the bottom of the barrel, and there didn't seem to be anything he could do to improve it. They knew they were only hanging on at the pleasure of the Na'vi. Only the human captives seemed to be coping with the situation.

The bastards up in the comfort of the starship in orbit had no fucking idea what this place was like.

"Colonel Renshaw!" cried a feminine voice from the depths of the forest. "The Omaticaya wish to invite you and your men to a celebration, and will guarantee their safety under a flag of truce, if you agree to do likewise."

The men looked at the colonel, and he looked back. He sighed slightly. What did he have to lose? "Very well," he said. "I give my word of honour."

A petite Na'vi woman in full warpaint stepped out on to the forest path, her hair decorated with colourful flowers and feathers. Her hands were empty of weapons. The colonel noted with surprise that the woman had the five-fingered hands of an Avatar. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"My name is Na'diakhudoshin," she said, her English thick with a Na'vi accent.

"The Ghoul!" hissed one of his men, lifting his assault rifle to fire.

"Safe that weapon!" snapped Colonel Renshaw, his voice like the cracking of a whip. He had an anxious moment when he thought his command would be ignored, but the man slowly lowered the rifle so the barrel pointed at the ground.

"Thank you, colonel," said the woman. She hadn't even blinked. "If you would follow me, we can be at our destination in a few minutes."

She walked along the path to the rear of the column, a bewitching perfume filling the air. He noticed each man take a deep breath as she passed, shutting their eyes to savour the delicate scent. Damn if the bitch didn't have a body to die for. The rolling of her ass-cheeks promised untold delights, and both he and his men followed her as though they were hypnotised.

The patrol had been following her for about ten minutes, when another scent started to become noticeable. Their noses twitched and their stomachs rumbled, as the delicious smell of roasting meat was carried on the air. How long had it been since he had a decent meal?

"If you would leave your firearms here," requested the woman. "They will be quite safe. We just want to avoid any unfortunate accidents."

He only hesitated for a moment. "Men," he said quietly. "Do as the lady asks."

The patrol sergeant asked, "What about knives, miss?"

An expression of slight dismay crossed her face, as though she was disappointed the question had been asked. She answered him bluntly, "A warrior is not a warrior without his knife. The Omaticaya do not seek to dishonour you. Instead, we intend exactly the opposite."

Somehow, her blunt words washed the tension out of both the colonel and his men. Their firearms clattered as they were leant against trees, and holsters suspended from low hanging branches. She nodded and then led the patrol into a huge clearing. It was filled with Na'vi, and an absolutely extraordinary number of them appeared to be young women. Very attractive young women, and many of them were looking boldly towards him and his men.

There were huge firepits, above which whole carcasses were being roasted, with pottery cooking jars half buried in the glowing charcoal promising rare delights. The colonel's mouth instantly started watering. He had not had a decent meal since...since he was human.

An imposing male walked towards the colonel, smiling broadly. He took the colonel's hands in both of his, and said warmly, "Colonel Renshaw. Zhake'soolly. I'm so glad you could come to our little ceremony. I was a little worried that you wouldn't be able to make it."

So this was the infamous Corporal Sully. He may have only been a lowly grunt in the US Marines, but by god he had the command presence of a four star general.

"Call me Renshaw," said the colonel. It was rumoured amongst his troops that he had his first name surgically removed, for no-one knew what it was – not even the admin clerk, and he had access to everyone's personnel jackets.

Na'dia watched with amusement as the colonel introduced his men to Zhake. They all braced to attention as Zhake inspected them, and complimented them on their turnout. Everything was running to plan – at least so far. She heard him explain to the colonel that there would be a brief ceremony, and then they would get down to the serious business of feasting and drinking. Na'dia would translate the words of the ceremony to him and his men, so that they wouldn't feel left out of it.

An ikran flew in to the clearing, alarming some of the dreamwalker soldiers and causing them to reach for weapons that were not there. The rider slid off the neck of the colourful beast – a young woman, painted in large swirls of white, her hair decorated with white flowers and feathers. She walked unerringly towards Zhake, stopping just in front of him, every part of her being filled with pride. He placed his hands on her shoulders, gazed into her eyes and began so speak in a most solemn voice.

Na'dia translated Zhake's words for the dreamwalkers. "Today, you begin, born anew as an adult, recognised by Eywa through your deeds and thoughts as being worthy of life. You are now a daughter of the Omaticaya. Tat'yana Fyodorvna Petrova, you are part of the People."

She felt the shock arising from the colonel and his men as she announced Tania's identity. She whispered, "Don't worry, Colonel Renshaw. She has not abandoned you. Just wait here, and I will explain after the close of the ceremony."

The colonel nodded curtly, so Na'dia moved forward, to be part of the linking of hands, and welcome her childhood friend into the clan of the Omaticaya. A minute later, the web of hands around Tania dissolved, and Na'dia moved forward to congratulate her, kissing her on the cheek. She noticed – not unexpectedly – that Tania's eyes were bright with unshed tears.

Na'dia took her hand. "Come, Tania," she said, pulling her towards the Colonel. "You have people to meet."

Tania, ever-so-slightly-reluctantly, followed her.

Colonel Renshaw said, "Petrova. I understand you have been busy."

"Yes, sir," she answered crisply. She breathed in deeply, a sign of her tension, causing the colonel's eyes to drop downwards for a moment, before they snapped back to her face.

"I am curious," he said, "As to why you did not attempt to escape your captivity, given that you seem to have mastered flying a banshee."

With a shocked look on her face, Tania answered, "But sir! I gave my word that I would not attempt to escape. And I had to do something with my time over the last three months."

The colonel sighed. If it had been a matter of honour, well, he could understand that. If a soldier of his could not be trusted to keep her word, then he wanted no part of her. "Very well," he said. "I hope you acquitted yourself well."

"Of course, sir," replied Tania, who seemed to have reverted to clockwork soldier mode. "I wanted to do the unit proud."

Na'dia said, "Tania will be returning with you to Hell's Gate, as an advisor. We understand you have some...disciplinary problems. She can help you with those, and also provide advice on other matters. However, you should be aware that she is also Omaticaya now, and has given her parole not to act against the interests of the clan."

"Hmmph," grunted Renshaw, casting his eyes up and down the new taronyu of the Omaticaya. "I suppose I should congratulate you, Petrova. I imagine it's not any easy thing to learn – like going through basic all over again, only worse."

"Yes sir," said Tania, still in clockwork soldier mode, although it was clear she wanted to be elsewhere than talking to her commanding officer.

He smiled thinly at her, easily reading her reluctance. "Dismissed," he said. "Go and enjoy yourself."

"Thank you, sir," she finished, and scampered off into the crowd, leaving Na'dia with the tawtute commander.

Before Na'dia could say anything else, one of the young women came over and addressed the colonel, staring directly into his eyes, challenging him to be rude to her. "You olo'eyktan of dreamwalker clan," she stated bluntly, in broken English. "Tania says you know use bow."

Renshaw nodded, as Na'dia hid a small smile. This was Amala, Peyral's sister, who was almost as tall and much better looking than her older sister. She had a reputation amongst the Omaticaya as being both direct and demanding, and something of a troublemaker. Needless to say, she was one of the young women who had not been successful in securing a mate.

"Amala wants see you use bow," said Amala, presenting him with her bow and three hunting arrows.

One of his men shouted, "Go for it, sir! Show them what you can do!"

Suddenly grinning like a boy, he took the bow from the woman. Almost like magic, the crowd drifted to either side of the clearing, exposing what was clearly a target at the far end. Renshaw had the distinct feeling this had all been set up beforehand, but he didn't care. He examined each arrow carefully, checking that they were fletched straight and true – he had experience with handcrafted arrows, but it was clear that these were masterpieces of the fletcher's art. There must have been days of work in shaping one stone arrowhead, let alone making a complete arrow.

He pushed the points of the arrows into the soft ground, within easy reach, and tried the pull of the bow. If this was the bow of Amala, then she was definitely stronger than she looked, he thought. There was only one problem. His vest and the gear hung from his webbing was in the way, so he stripped it off and dropped it on the ground, displaying his naked chest to the gathering.

He was concentrating on the bow too much to hear Amala's sharp intake of breath, but Na'dia did not miss it. Colonel Renshaw had the most impressively muscled Na'vi torso and arms that she had ever seen. He must spend several hours every day lifting weights – perhaps he did it to relieve the stress of command. In fact, he was a very handsome man. If Na'dia hadn't been very firmly mated to Txep'ean, then she herself would have been tempted to get to know the colonel better.

Renshaw selected an arrow, nocked it, and then drew and released the shot in a single smooth action, the sign of an expert archer. The arrow thudded into the target only a handspan from the centre, and there was a general murmur of appreciation from the Na'vi. It was an excellent shot for any archer using an unfamiliar bow. The colonel, however, frowned deeply. It was clear he was not happy with the shot. The next cast of the bow was much better, landing dead centre of the target, while his third shot was less than an inch from the second. His men cheered, while the Na'vi called out words of respect, especially when he walked to the target to retrieve the arrows.

"Nice bow," said Renshaw as he returned the bow and arrows to Amala. An attractive half-smile decorated his face.

The young woman nodded. "What is name of olo'eyktan?"

"Renshaw," he replied.

"I come to tawtute place to know Ren'zhore, only," said Amala, grasping his shoulder firmly with her right hand.

Na'dia had never seen an expression on the face of a Na'vi that looked more like that of a hunting palulukan. As she watched Amala walk away, she murmured, "Target lock acquired and missile launched."

"What was that?" asked Renshaw, turning towards Na'dia.

She smiled at the confused man. "Amala has just indicated her interest in pursuing you for her life-mate, before all the other unattached young women of the clan. In effect, she just warned them off, and you have acquired a very persistent admirer. If you do not already have a mate, then I suspect you will soon."

His eyes goggled, and he protested, "I thought Na'vi males Chose their mates." He had had no intention of starting a relationship – both his short Earth marriages ended in very expensive divorces, and until he was invalided out of the army with severe wounds, his life objective had been to stay married to the military.

"A convenient fiction that women allow to persist in order to protect fragile male egos," explained Na'dia. "Ah, good. The food and drink is being served."

The blissful expressions on the faces of the dreamwalkers showed that they really appreciated Na'vi cooking. Na'dia squatted with them, talking to the colonel, telling him about each dish that was served. He remarked that she was not eating any of the meat dishes. Na'dia made a face, and told him that she had been a vegetarian since she was a child, and did not eat cooked meat. The small omission of the truth did not bother her overly much – she still could not eat meat that was cooked, but the raw flesh and hot blood of a fresh kill – that was something else, an entirely different matter, however much she resisted the temptation.

"There is one thing I do have to ask," he said. "Why were our patrols not permitted past the totems?"

She smiled. "It was for your protection," she said. "That was the maximum area from which the Omaticaya could exclude predators, until we were in a position to start to teach you how to live in harmony with Eywa. That is why today is so important, so one of your own may teach you." She paused before saying, "I wish to apologise for killing three of your men. I did not realise you were not human, until afterwards."

"But we are human!" he exclaimed.

"If that is what you wish to believe," responded Na'dia, "I am sure it is most comforting. Over time, you may come to change your mind. I did."


	17. Chapter 17

The celebration ran well into the night. A couple of the soldiers participated in the games that were traditional for such events. Games such as 'carry the stone' and caber tossing were designed to showcase the young men's health and strength in front of the young women, and the wrestling was particularly keenly watched.

Na'dia talked Renshaw into competing in 'carry the stone'. The rules were simple. A large rock of irregular shape was lifted with bare hands and carried as far as possible. The technique the colonel used was different to that used by all the Na'vi competitors. Instead of bending his back to lift the rock, he worked his hands under the rock, squatted and then exploded upwards, his voice bellowing as he expelled air from his lungs. He stood still for several seconds, the muscles in his neck and shoulders bulging enormously as he shifted his grip, and then started to walk. To the amazement of the Omaticaya, he walked the entire length of the clearing, and dropped the rock cleanly, taking care not to crush his feet.

The Omaticaya had never seen anyone do this before. They roared with approval, and many of the young women clustered around the colonel, touching him as they said admiring words – at least until Amala snarled and hissed at them, pushing her rivals aside. Renshaw found his arms full of a lissom Amala, who rewarded his triumph with a passionate kiss. It was a very pleasant experience.

After that sterling example, all of the soldiers competed in one or another of the events - none of them wanted to be cast into the shade by their commanding officer, particularly if they caught the attention of the young women - and although none of them came first, they acquitted themselves with honour.

The colonel overheard one of his men slur to his mate that the Na'vi sure knew how to throw a party – and the booze they supplied had more legs than a fucking centipede. He asked Na'dia, "How often do the Omaticaya celebrate like this?" He was patiently submitting to Amala braiding his hair at the time. The gentle touch of her fingers through his hair was washing away the stress that he had accumulated over the last three months.

Na'dia, who held her sleepy daughter in her arms, answered, "It depends on the season, but we can usually count on some kind of holiday like this at least once a month."

A deep voice started chanting, "Na'dia! Na'dia! Na'dia!" The chant was quickly picked up by the rest of the Omaticaya.

Smiling ruefully, Na'dia lifted her daughter and placed her in Renshaw's lap. "Could you mind her for a moment?"

Renshaw was given no time to object.

The chanting quieted as Na'dia walked over to Ninat and Txep'ean. They exchanged a few words, as the Na'vi cleared an area in the middle of clearing. Ninat gestured towards some of the young men, who produced drums and flutes.

Ninat began to sing.

Renshaw had never heard a voice like it. She put the greatest opera singers of Earth to shame, the strength, range and purity of her voice overwhelming his ears, the melancholy of the alien words tearing at his heart. And then Na'dia and Txep'ean danced.

Somehow, through their movement, the dancers projected a sense of loss mixed with hatred, that so reluctantly was turned into love and longing. The story was compelling, although he did not understand the lyrics sung by the singer. Renshaw glanced at the Na'vi audience, many of whom were weeping unaffectedly.

Amala murmured in his ear, "Is story of dying tawtute girl in love with Na'vi warrior, saves his life at cost of her own, but is granted life anew through grace of Eywa."

Tat'yana, who had roused when the music started, corrected her quietly. "It is story of sa'nu and sempu – mother and father."

He watched, spellbound. Renshaw had no idea that Na'vi culture was so rich. His mission briefing had told him virtually nothing of this – merely that they were brutal savages. But this – this was real.

The performance ended with Na'dia and Txep'ean embracing passionately. Txep'ean said, "I like the way this dance ends."

"So do I," replied Na'dia, looking up at her mate with love. "Even if it glosses over how the story really turned out." Txep'ean chuckled – Na'dia never let him forget it took several months and much anguish after the events depicted in this dance before they were finally mated. She reached up to kiss him on the cheek, liking the fact that he was much taller than her. "Come. You should meet Renshaw. I like him."

"Should I be worried?" he asked, a twinkle in his eye.

Na'dia snorted most inelegantly. "He is about ten years too late, and not half the man you are."

"Did you measure him?" asked Ninat, who had crept up on them unseen. "I think Amala would have something to say about that." Txep'ean and Na'dia chuckled at their mate's blatant innuendo.

The celebration was running down as the three life partners approached the dreamwalker soldier. He looked very happy to return Na'dia's daughter. It seemed that he had had very little to do with children, although Na'dia suspected that if Amala had her way, that situation would change fairly quickly – especially if Amala was anywhere near as fertile as her sister Peyral.

Those uniltìranyu soldiers too drunk to stand were slung between the shoulders of their mates, and the merry looking crew staggered to the weapons cache, where Tania was waiting. The colonel tried to look disapproving of his men, totally failing to hit the mark due to his own happiness. Instead, his men just grinned back at him, except for those that were semi-comatose. They all looked very un-military – many of the soldiers had flowers woven into their hair, or their faces were painted in brilliant colours. As the soldiers collected their firearms, Na'dia told Tania, "Make sure they don't get lost, or fall down the mountain. We want them safely back to Hell's Gate. The strategy will fail if any hurt comes to them."

"Don't worry, Na'dia," replied Tania. "I'll make sure they get home."


	18. Chapter 18

The following morning had been a busy one for Na'dia and her mates. They loaded up four pa'li with supplies – unfortunately one of them was her stallion, who refused to allow her to ride any other direhorse – and rode towards Hell's Gate. Tat'yana was riding in front of Na'dia, while Hukato had insisted on riding with his father. He had come to that age where he felt it was unmanly to be coddled by a woman.

Ninat laughed at her son for being so stuffy, but she was happy. She could feel the first stirrings of new life within her.

To no-one's surprise, Amala had attached herself to the group.

As they approached the perimeter at Hell's Gate, a harsh voice called out, "Halt! Who goes there!" The command quality of the voice was somewhat diminished by the croakiness of its tone, as though the owner had been gargling with bourbon whiskey for several hours and accidentally forgetting to spit out the liquid.

A uniltìranyu soldier was training a tribarrel machine gun on them. Na'dia shouted back, "A delegation from the Omaticaya to see Colonel Renshaw – also we bring medicines, as we understand some of his men may be feeling unwell."

"You've got a hangover cure?" croaked the sentry. "Fucking A! Come forward!"

The adults dismounted and led their pa'li forward. The sentry was indeed one of the men from yesterday's patrol, and he looked terrible. His golden eyes were bloodshot, dark circles the depth of the Grand Canyon were under his eyes, and the way he moved he looked as though he was afraid his head was about to detonate on his shoulders.

Na'dia walked up to the suffering man, reached inside the basket she was carrying and pulled out some leaves. "Chew on these," she said. "They will not totally banish your hangover, but they will make it bearable. Don't swallow the leaves though – spit them out after you have chewed them to a pulp."

The soldier took the offered leaves from Na'dia, shoved them in his mouth and started to chew. His face screwed up at their bitter taste, although it really wasn't any worse than the taste of his mouth right now. Almost instantly, the pounding of his head reduced in volume.

"Thanks, Ms. Nadia," he said gratefully. The soldier mumbled sotto voce into his throat mike, and listened. "The colonel is in the longhouse. He is expecting you." As they led the pa'li away, he yelled out, "That was some shit-hot party!"

Ninat asked Na'dia curiously, "Is hot shit good or bad? My shit is hot only after eating too many spiced teylu, and that hurts very much. It is not good – that is why I do not eat more than three now, even though they taste so delicious."

Na'dia grinned, answering, "It means very good in a very bad way."

"I will never understand Inglisi idiom," sighed Ninat disconsolately. "It is so illogical, not like Na'vi at all."

The many soldiers on mysterious uniltìranyu business around Hell's Gate looked at the party curiously, but did not stop them, using standard military logic that if Na'vi were here inside a guarded perimeter, and there had been no shooting, then they were supposed to be here.

They unloaded the pa'li of their burdens in front of the longhouse, and Ninat told Hukato and Tat'yana to mind the beasts – especially the stallion – and make sure they didn't trample the plants in the Avatar garden. The two children nodded solemnly, proud to be given such an important task.

Colonel Renshaw was inside, debriefing Tania. Na'dia smiled to herself, imagining what Ninat would make of a thought like that – for a woman with such a heavenly singing voice, her mind was perpetually in the gutter. Renshaw looked none the worse for wear from last night's celebration, apart from a little tiredness.

He turned to greet the four Na'vi adults. "I See you," he said. His voice thickened slightly as he turned to Amala to add, "Thank you for taking such good care of me last night, Amala. I enjoyed the pleasure of your company greatly."

The young woman's face flushed darker, and she looked down at her feet in what appeared to be a moment of shyness. Both Na'dia and Ninat struggled not to laugh – it was well known to the entire clan that Amala had no sense of shame at all. The colonel was being played to within an inch of his life. Amala muttered something inconsequential and appropriately maiden-like that they couldn't quite hear, but Renshaw apparently did. He smiled handsomely, as Amala looked up through her lowered eyelashes and returned a tentative smile.

The colonel was toast, thought Na'dia. Amala would have him firmly under her thumb in only a matter of weeks – no, days. The poor bastard wouldn't know what hit him.

Na'dia spoke. "We have brought medicine for those who overindulged at the celebration last night, and the things that are needed for Uniluke. I am sure, Colonel Renshaw, that you would appreciate it if your females were not so...disruptive."

"Uniluke?" he asked. Apparently Tania had not mentioned that part of her involuntary stay with the Omaticaya. She had obviously remembered something about what men were supposed to know.

"It is secret women's business," said Ninat, "A ceremony that all Na'vi women perform to control the female spirits in our blood, and make us less difficult to deal with."

"Yes, we must instruct your females on the Uniluke ceremony, in a place where there are no men," added Na'dia.

The colonel looked a little doubtful, but he was willing to try anything that would resolve the disciplinary problems he had with his female soldiers. "I suppose you could use the maintenance hangar," he offered. "I can arrange to have that cleared for your use in about ten minutes."

"Good," said Na'dia. "I will need to borrow Tania as well."

"I will stay to keep Ren'zhore company and answer his questions," volunteered Amala eagerly.

Not days, thought Na'dia. Hours.

"Fine," said the colonel. He mumbled into his throat mike for a moment. "All female personnel will be in the hangar in ten minutes, waiting for your briefing, Na'dia."

"I shall watch the children," said Txep'ean tactfully, as he observed Renshaw struggling to not look at Amala, and failing. "Any of your men who are feeling unwell, send them to me, and I will give them the hangover cure."

Renshaw snorted with amusement. He had seen many defaulters return to base somewhat the worse for wear after overstaying their leave, but he had never seen so many suffering so severely from the effects of overindulgence. "You will have many new friends, Txep'ean, I am sure."

Inside the maintenance hangar were over one hundred uniltìranyu women. The sense of tension was palpable, and there had already been two vicious scuffles at the rear of the crowd. Na'dia, Ninat and Tania climbed up onto a raised platform that had formerly been used to work on AMP suits so they could address the crowd. A couple of the women recognised Tania, and called out snide comments regarding her new attire. She just stared them down.

"Ladies!" cried out Na'dia, generating a wave of ironic laughter. Any less ladylike grouping of women could not be imagined. "No doubt you have been going through difficult times, experiencing what you might call uber-PMS."

"Too bloody right!" yelled one of the women, the flat nasal accents of her voice betraying her Australian origins. "It almost makes me nostalgic for being on the rag." Her words evoked another round of bitter laughter.

"The Na'vi have a solution for this, a ceremony called Uniluke," said Na'dia. She described the nature of the custom, and at her command, Ninat removed a kali'weya from one of the baskets. There was a murmur of dismay as they saw the arthropod rattle its many legs and attempt to sting Ninat.

The woman who had spoken before called out, "I've never minded getting right royally pissed, but I'm not too keen on letting a fucking scorpion shove its stinger in my bloody arm, just on some bitch's say-so. I've read the shit on the venomous fucking wildlife here. Why the fuck should we trust some slack cunt who has gone fucking native?"

Na'dia reflected that the woman's mouth came right out of the sewer.

"Before I answer that question," said Na'dia, "Is there anyone here who has mated and is carrying a child? Partaking of Uniluke will result in a miscarriage."

The Australian uniltìranyu woman snorted with disbelief, commenting drily, "There is no fucking way any of us would fuck anyone from this pack of fucking losers."

There was silence after her remarks, until a woman standing next to the Australian dreamwalker shyly put up her hand. "I'm pregnant," she said quietly. There was a gasp of horror and shock from the crowd.

"Kim, what bastard raped you?" demanded the Australian savagely, grabbing at her shoulder and pulling her around to face her.

"No one raped me, Sharon," replied Kim calmly, "I mated with Lieutenant Foster a month ago, and joined with him in tsahaylu. I think that means he is my husband, according to the locals." Her face darkened as she looked around and said hotly, "And all of you bitches can keep your filthy eyes off him. He's mine, I love him, and he loves me. If I catch anyone touching him I'll kill the slutty bitch."

"Foster, hey," conceded Sharon grudgingly. "I suppose he's not so bad. You could have done a lot worse."

"Is there anyone else?" asked Na'dia. "No? Good. To allay your doubts, Tania and I will participate with two others in Uniluke." Ninat scowled at her words, but held her peace. They had discussed that there may be a need for this, and she had reluctantly agreed. Na'dia had known how much it had cost her to suggest that she share Uniluke with Tania, and had hoped it would not come to this.

Sharon had been watching the three on the dais keenly, and had noted Ninat's dismay. She held up her hand and said, "Hold on. If it is going to give your lady friend here the shits," she nodded at Ninat, "You don't have to do this fucking Uniluke thing with any of us. It's enough for me that you were willing to do it with us scum." She grinned and coarsely growled, "Which three of you sluts want to come muff-diving with me?"


	19. Chapter 19

Hell's Gate was a very different place now, thought Na'dia. She had walked past the uniltìranyu sentry, who had waved cheerfully to her, calling out her name. Like most of the soldiers now, the only clothing he wore was a pair of shorts cut down from fatigue trousers, and boots had been long since discarded. The only reason why the uniltìranyu tended not to wear loincloths was their firm attachment to the convenience of pockets. She waved back.

Over the last six months, at least thirty of the uniltìranyu had climbed to Iknimaya to win their own ikran, some of which could be seen roosting on top of the buildings. Many more would be making the same climb in the next few weeks. Still, despite the noise of the roosting ikran, Hell's Gate was a much calmer place than it had been. After they had introduced the practice of Uniluke to the uniltìranyu women, the tension in the air had dropped markedly.

Many of the men were out in the forest hunting and gathering, or courting young women from one or another of the Fifteen Clans, so Hell's Gate was not nearly as crowded as it was previously. Of those men that had chosen life-mates, about half remained out with the clans, while the others had returned to this place with their women. Of the dreamwalker women, only two had mated outside their own people, the remainder that had paired choosing males from what was now being called the clan of the Uniltìranyu, no matter what the men said about that they were the ones doing the Choosing. Curiously enough, one of the women who had mated outside the uniltìranyu was the feisty Sharon, who was now a very happy if still foul-mouthed member of the Ikran people. It seemed that she had been right – there was no way she was going to mate with any uniltìranyu scum.

It was much more like a village now than the armed mining camp and research station that it had been.

Na'dia made a bee-line for the Avatar longhouse, which still bore the sign of 'The Laughing Palulukan', albeit much faded from exposure to the weather. It was surrounded now by other wooden huts, of much simpler construction than the longhouse – but buildings all the same. Nonetheless, the uniltìranyu had planted many trees and plants around them, to try and bring the forest into Hell's Gate.

"Oel ngati kameie, Na'dia," said Amala, standing at the doorway of the longhouse. Her belly was showing the first visible signs of pregnancy, and she looked both happy and relaxed – an amazing development for anyone that had known her prior to her mating. "Ren'zhore is inside with Max, waiting for you."

"Irayo, Amala," replied Na'dia, smiling at the young woman. If anything, Amala was the perfect poster child for what Zhake had called Operation Bounty.

"Na'dia," said Renshaw. He was standing at the plotting table, frowning at the display. "I'm glad you are here."

Max grunted in welcome, the noise only slightly muffled by his exo-pack mask. He was scrolling through data on a console, looking for heaven knows what.

"What is the problem?" asked Na'dia.

Renshaw looked up from the plotting table. "It's the mission commander," he said. "He is demanding we start preparing for the resumption of mining, now that the Na'vi political situation is stable. The starship with miners and our reinforcements – all human – is only a few weeks out. I just don't have the capacity to do it, not and keep my men fed, and still keep the ecology of the Hell's Gate range healthy. You can't rely on your defensive virus any more either. The bio team in orbit cracked the vaccine."

"There is the minor matter of re-opening the mine," mentioned Na'dia calmly. She had been expecting that the usefulness of the virus would soon come to an end. "The Na'vi will resist the rape of Eywa. You know that."

"There is that minor matter," echoed Renshaw. His hands gripped the edge of the plotting table hard, the tough plastic audibly cracking under the awesome power of his grasp, as he tried to control his anger. "Damn you, bitch!" he shouted finally, his face contorted with fury. "You twisted me so that I have no fucking choice!" The colonel took several deep calming breaths, before he said quietly, with an implacable thread of steel running though his voice, "I will not have my wife and child live at the mercy of the humans, squatting in a stinking rubbish dump on the edge of a mining camp. You know that will be the outcome if I follow my orders." He repeated, "I will not have it. There is nothing else to do but to rebel against the RDA."

Na'dia said sadly to the proud and honourable soldier, "I have been wondering how long it would take before you admitted to yourself that you were not human, but Na'vi."

He nodded once. "You were right," he said. "I know now exactly why Sully chose the path that he did. He had no choice but to do otherwise, not if he was to remain true to himself. The code of the warrior demands it of us."

"Will the rest of the Uniltìranyu clan feel the same?" she asked. "Will they also rebel?"

"Yes," was his blunt answer. He might no longer be human, but Renshaw still knew his men.

"Good," she replied. "You realise you owe the RDA nothing, Renshaw?"

"I understand that now. I did not before."


	20. Chapter 20

Renshaw had kept her delayed at Hell's Gate for far too long. She had been stupid to go in the first place, even though his message had sounded desperate – as indeed it was. Not only the time it took, but the timing sucked too. So now there was no choice but to ride like the wind, and curse the fact that she could not bond with an ikran. It was just as well her pa'li was insane, and would continue to run and run to the place of the Omaticaya until it dropped, even though its every muscle was shrieking with exhaustion – as was her entire body. She had to be there – there was no choice.

As soon as the pa'li cantered into the clearing around Hometree, she launched herself from its back and ran inside, seeking the place where she should have been.

There was a crowd of women around the birthing chamber. Na'dia elbowed and shoved her way through the pack, until she managed to slip inside. Ninat was there, her belly distended, gasping for air. She saw Na'dia arrive and said tiredly, "I knew you would come."

"Of course I was going to be here," said Na'dia quietly, leaning forward to kiss her lover on the forehead.

Mo'at scolded Ninat gently. "You can stop holding back now, Ninat. It is beyond time."

The birth went quickly, now that the mother-to-be was not resisting. Na'dia reflected that Na'vi women had it much easier than human women, due to the small size of their offspring and the broadness of their hips. Fifteen minutes later, Na'dia was holding a tiny, squalling being, and announced, "We have another daughter, my love."

"Can I see?" asked Ninat, holding out her arms. Na'dia knelt by her life-mate, and gave her their new child. "I See you, Seze'nang," murmured Ninat.

It was a good name, reflected Na'dia – the name of Ninat's sister of the tsumuke'awsiteng who died in the Fall of Hometree, before Na'dia joined the Omaticaya. She smiled at Mo'at, looking for her assent to the name of the new Omaticaya, but the frown on the Tsahik's face instantly worried her. "What is wrong?" she asked.

"There is too much blood," said Mo'at.

Na'dia's heart leapt into her mouth, and she turned back to Ninat, only to see her slip into unconsciousness. "Do something," she screamed at the Tsahik, as Mo'at caught the baby before it fell.

Mo'at shook her head. "There is nothing to be done. The bleeding is deep inside her, beyond our reach."

"No!" howled Na'dia. Without knowing how or why, she reached for Ninat's queue and joined it to hers, plunging her awareness into the body of her life-mate. Dimly, she heard Mo'at telling her not to do this thing. She could be dragged down into death together with Ninat. Mo'at probably was right – she could feel Ninat's awareness spiralling regretfully away, and it was pulling at her own.

Then she Saw it – a ruptured blood vessel in Ninat's womb. Na'dia reached out for all the life energy that surrounded her, and gathered it to herself, using all her four arms, every one of the claws of her spirit form hooking into the power that she needed and ripping it away from its owners. She was so full of life that she could almost burst, but then she poured it out, heedless of the waste, ordering the cells in the torn blood vessel to knit together. If Ninat could not live, then no-one else deserved to live either.

The bleeding had stopped, and Na'dia's awareness swam back to reality – but Ninat had still lost too much blood volume. Her heart was struggling to pump what little blood was left in her body. Na'dia turned to Mo'at, but she too had slumped into unconsciousness, like all the women surrounding the birthing chamber.

Na'dia was not concerned of the state of the women around her. They were all still alive, while Ninat was still in danger. But where was Ninat's medicine box? There. She yanked it open, and pulled out what she needed – a flexible tube joining two hollow needles. Na'dia had told Ninat of the human practice of blood transfusions, and that all Na'vi had the same blood group, so that there was no danger of rejection. Ninat had been charmed by the thought of using the blood of one to save the life of another, so she made this device, although it had never been used. Na'dia sunk one needle into her arm. Immediately, a jet of bright red arterial blood shot out of the other needle, which she plunged into Ninat's arm. Now all that could be done was to wait.

She waited for five minutes, her head growing increasingly lighter, until she felt Ninat's heartbeat lose its threadiness and gradually slow down.

Mo'at stirred, and slowly opened her eyes. "What did you do?" she hissed at Na'dia. Ninat's daughter was still safely in Mo'at's arms, thank Eywa.

"Save Ninat's life, when you could not, or would not," was the abrupt answer, just before Na'dia started to sway and slide away sideways into a faint.

Na'dia blinked. Her spirit form was in the dance studio once again, but this time Grace was not there. "You!" she snarled.

The woman gazing out the window turned and smiled. "Hello, Na'dia," she said, without moving her lips. "This place from your memories has a beauty all of its own, does it not?"

"You tried to take Ninat from me," accused Na'dia.

"Ah," she said, "Accusing me of being the omnipotent one, controlling the destiny of all on our world. That's not my thing - I'm not like the tawtute Christian God, who hears the fall of every sparrow. I'm more about keeping the Balance of Life. Ninat was just one of those things that happens – a falling sparrow, so to speak, or a quirk of Fate - not that there is such a thing as Fate, as far as I am aware." The woman walked across the wooden floor to take one of Na'dia's fearsome hands in her own.

"Is she going to live?" demanded Na'dia.

"Oh, I think so," said the woman, examining the black skin and savage claws of Na'dia's left upper hand. "You did enough to save her, Na'dia. However, there is the matter of the Balance. Your body is small, and you have given her too much of your own blood, and not kept enough for yourself. Your own life hangs in the balance, so to speak. It is most irritating, particularly with the effort that has gone into making you. Quite simply, you are unique, and difficult to replace – although, not impossible."

"Oh," replied Na'dia. The news that she might die did not seem terribly important, for some reason, although she was still passionately worried over Ninat's future. "What happens next? Do I have to go somewhere?"

There was no immediate answer from the woman. After what might have been a few seconds, or many hours – it was difficult to judge the flow of time in this place – the woman said, "I think I will send you back. You deserve a reward for turning the uniltìranyu away from the humans." She released Na'dia's hand, adding, "There will be a small price that must be paid, so that the Balance may be kept – although you were most of the way there already."

"A price, Eywa?" asked Na'dia, finally conceding that she knew the name of this being.

"Your soul," said Eywa, and snapped her fingers.

Na'dia heard Txep'ean calling her name. She opened her eyes, to see his anxious face hovering above her. She wanted to say that she was fine and there was nothing to worry about, but she knew that was not so. She was not Na'dia any more – or at least the Na'dia that she had been. She was something else, something that she had only pretended to be before. Now Na'dia was swimming in the depths of a pool, a deep, dark pool that she had barely dipped her toe in.

Na'dia was palulukan.


	21. Chapter 21

Na'dia rose smoothly to her feet, instantly awake and aware. The two legs who was her mate made some noise with his mouth. She puzzled briefly over its meaning, remembering that two legs communicated by sound, until she deciphered the blurred and imprecise noises into concepts. "Are you feeling well?"

The two legs was concerned about her health. Was it not perfectly obvious that her body was functioning correctly? Otherwise, she would not be on her feet. Still, perhaps he was due an answer, as he was her mate, and it was right that he should be concerned for her well-being. She frowned slightly, searching for the right noises to answer his question.

"Self is healthy," said Na'dia. "Where is other mate? Self wishes to be in her presence."

He answered, "Ninat is still in the birthing chamber, with Mo'at."

When Na'dia started to turn away from him to go to her other mate, he caught at her arm and began to ask, "What is wrong..."

Na'dia curled her lips away from her teeth, and snarled at the male, threatening to injure him for daring to attempt to compel her. Her fingers curled into claws and her muscles tensed, ready to attack.

Involuntarily, Txep'ean took a step back. He had never seen a Na'vi more like a wild animal than at that moment.

Good, thought the palulukan who only dimly remembered that she once had a name, and that it had been Na'dia. The male had acknowledged that she was the alpha. That was all she needed from him at this moment. Later, she thought, feeling heat in her groin, she would require other things from him.

She ignored the calls from other two legs, asking if she was alright. She was focused on one thing, and one thing only.

Her female mate was lying in the birthing chamber, nursing her new offspring, making mewling noises at it in order to relax it. Na'dia relaxed and smiled. Her female mate was an effective mother, well suited to raising another cub. She had been concerned that her healing would not be enough to keep her safe, but here was proof that her fears were groundless.

The old two legs female was here. Na'dia barely glanced at the old female, for not only was she not important, she was dozing as well. At least she would not be interrupted, so she squatted by her female mate and touched her on the shoulder.

Ninat said, "Isn't Seze'nang beautiful?"

The question obviously referred to her new offspring. Na'dia answered, "Cub is healthy and without flaw. Self is pleased, and grateful that mate is still alive."

Ninat's head moved from observing her new daughter to gazing at her lover. Her words sounded exactly like Na'dia's description of how her sensei spoke in tsahaylu. What had happened to her? She asked cautiously, "Mo'at told me that you did something to save my life, but not exactly what."

Na'dia remembered very well what she had done. "Self healed blood vessel in womb, as mate would bleed to death, and gave own blood to replace blood lost. Self wished to retain mate, and pleased that action was successful."

Ninat gazed deep into Na'dia's unblinking eyes, and saw...an absence. The gentle spirit that was there was gone, to be replaced by the cold, hard mind of Pandora's apex land predator. She knew without being told what had happened. This was more than being possessed by the spirit of a palulukan. She shivered slightly, knowing that whatever Na'dia had done to save her life had done this to her, created her as a monster.

"You are palulukan now," stated Ninat.

The monster that had been Na'dia tilted her head curiously at her mate. The words had surprised her slightly, but then she remembered why she felt such an affinity for this two legs. The female mate was perceptive and intelligent, as well as being attractive and sexually skilled.

"Yes."

Ninat nodded slowly. She had always known that beneath the gentle spirit of the swok'txelan dancer lived the savage soul of a killer. It seemed that whatever had happened, the palulukan spirit was now in possession of Na'dia's body, although she was not overly concerned. The words it had said, cold though they were, still told her that no matter what, Na'dia still loved her. That was enough for Ninat.

She could only foresee one real problem. Na'dia had always been a loving and affectionate parent to both Tat'yana and Hukato – if anything, Ninat had to be the disciplinarian. How would they react to seeing the strangeness of the palulukan that was Na'dia?

"If you see our children, my love, send them to talk to me."

Na'dia gazed steadily at Ninat for what seemed like minutes, and then gave a single nod. "Self must see clan alpha male. Bring message from Uniltìranyu."

"You should see Zhake then," said Na'dia. "He will want to hear your message."

The palulukan woman stood, her head swivelling towards the entrance, moving more like a piece of precision engineering than a living being. Ninat blinked once, and then blinked again. Na'dia was gone.


	22. Chapter 22

Zhake looked at Na'dia, his skin crawling. The alien vibe she was radiating was palpable, distorting the very air around her. Even the news that she brought, that Renshaw had agreed to lead the Uniltìranyu against the humans, did not manage to calm his disquiet.

"The tawtute will keep coming," said Na'dia, "Until they are stopped."

Zhake knew this. He had always known in his heart that the humans could not be stopped, but had hoped that the Na'vi would make it so expensive that they might give up. But they just kept on coming, and coming, just like a palulukan. He still had nightmares about the palulukan that had hunted him on his first day in the forest. It had kept on coming too.

The woman in front of him projected the same sense of inevitability.

"Self has plan to stop tawtute," said Na'dia.

His ears flicked forward as he listened in increasing horror to what she proposed. A Na'vi would never have devised such a plan. What she was putting forward was monstruous. No, not monstrous – human.

Na'dia fell silent. She had communicated the plan, and was waiting for the olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya to agree to implement it.

"Will it work?" he asked rhetorically.

She did not answer. Na'dia knew that two legs often made meaningless noises disguised as communication in order to fill silence. The answer to the question was that either the plan would work, or it would not work. The only proof would be to attempt it.

He sighed. "Your plan sounds like it has a good chance of success," he said. "From what Renshaw told you, we have a small amount of time to prepare." What he was about to say was probably totally useless, but he wanted to say it anyway. Zhake had always liked Na'dia, and wished her well even though she was suffering from a serious case of palulukan. "We shall leave tomorrow for Hell's Gate to set the wheels in motion. Why don't you spend today with your family?"

It would be pleasing to see her offspring, thought Na'dia. It would also be efficient, as her female mate had asked her to send the offspring to her. No doubt, the female mate wished to impart some teaching to the immature two legs. Na'dia felt for the lifespark of her offspring – she was not far away.

Tat'yana was watching over the herd of pa'li feeding from the flowers on the river bank. She was in her favourite spot for this duty, astride the insane pa'li stallion that her mother always rode. Other children had tried to usurp her position from time to time, but the stallion had always viciously turned on them. For some reason it had never minded her mounting it, ignoring her as though she was an insect, even when she joined with it in tsahaylu. When she asked it to move through the bond, it never answered immediately to her request, but an indeterminant wait after such a request it would move in the direction she asked as though it had always intended to go that way.

The ferocity of the beast she had felt through the bond had never bothered her.

She felt familiar eyes upon her, and turned to see her mother approaching. Tat'yana slipped off the pa'li and ran towards her. Tat'yana had been kept away the birthing chamber during the delivery of her half-sister. There had been mutterings amongst some of the older children that something strange had happened involving her mother, and that she was at death's door. The gossips had been wrong, for here her mother was, running lightly as was her want.

Na'dia swept up her offspring in her arms, and held her tight, breathing in the clean smell of young flesh. She felt a primal need to protect the female child from all that would harm her, and did not want to release her. However, the child wriggled with the energy of the young, desperate to be set down, so she released her precious burden. The child immediately grabbed hold of Na'dia's left hand.

"Sa'nu," said Tat'yana. "I was worried. They said you were ill."

"Offspring should not be concerned," said Na'dia, her voice calm. "Self is healthy now." They began walking back towards Hometree.

"You are talking like your sensei," said Tat'yana. She looked curiously up into Na'dia's face and saw her mother's lips curve into a smile. Her eyes – her eyes looked just like her mother's always did, except perhaps they were a little more so – were filled with love. She had always known that her mother was not like other Na'vi, and not because she had once been a dreamwalker. It seemed as though the veneer her mother showed the world had been peeled away.

"Child will dance with self," said Na'dia, apparently ignoring her daughter's statement, but pleased as it showed the intelligence of the immature two legs. "After dance, she will go to other mate, to see new sibling, and to learn."

Mother and child danced together, stepping gracefully through the stately figures they had shared many times before. Tat'yana loved to dance with her mother. She knew every step that her mother would tread before she made them, every motion of hand and arm, every turn of head was familiar. A hidden watcher would have seen them move as one, as though the child was a shadow of the mother.

The palulukan felt content, dancing with her child, but she was aware that her world was in terrible danger. The humans were returning. If she failed in the attempt to finally stop them, this world and her offspring would be destroyed. Eventually, the humans would succeed in their objective – their terrible persistence and inventiveness guaranteed that outcome. She could think of no other option than the plan she had put forward to the olo'eyktan. It had to succeed, no matter what the cost.


	23. Chapter 23

Na'dia stretched luxuriantly, remembering the feel of her male inside her from last night. He had been a little reluctant, as he was concerned that she might become gravid from his seed inside her, as she had not partaken of Uniluke for some time. When she reassured him that she could control her own fertility, his doubts had fallen by the wayside, and he had bent his back into servicing her – more than adequately.

She rolled off her back to the left, tucked the butt of the BFG into her shoulder and flicked on the sight. The view over Hell's Gate from her position was stunning, despite the flickering range readouts and the crosshairs in the gunsight.

Ninat commented, "The Valkyrie shuttle is approaching, darling."

"Self hears," whispered Na'dia. She could hear the roar of the fusion-powered reaction jets. It was starting.

The engines of the huge shuttle roared as it slowed to land. It was carrying a precious cargo – a gene splicing chamber, used for initiating human-Na'vi hybrids. Renshaw had convinced the mission commander that the remaining human captives had agreed to resume employment with the RDA, on the condition that they be given Avatar bodies.

Renshaw had explained to the Na'vi that this had been the original plan of this mission, to seduce the human captives back into the RDA fold, and then use them as labour in the mines. Although the humans had made a breakthrough in growing hybrids, as demonstrated by the many uniltìranyu, the technology was still incredibly expensive, even for the RDA. Hence the tawtute had retained the chamber in orbit until they were sure that the Na'vi threat was extinguished, as they had only brought one to Pandora.

And it was too damn big to drop in an aero-shell.

She listened carefully to the chatter between the control tower and the shuttle, the earwig connected to her pe'dehayu translating the encrypted sideband broadcast perfectly. Na'dia was waiting for the pilots to advise engine shutdown and open the cargo doors.

The ground crew chief had plugged his headset into the socket in the nose landing gear, and was talking to the flight deck crew. She couldn't see the cargo doors from her location. Na'dia was waiting for the signal from the crew chief to proceed.

There it was. Now.

Na'dia flicked on the laser rangefinder, targeting the forehead of the pilot through the cockpit window. She said quietly, "Co-pilot. Open airlock doors or pilot dies." Her words were transmitted to the flight crew via the crew chief's receiver, minimising any chance of the starship intercepting her broadcast. Not only that, when talking to the crew chief, the flight crew were not transmitting back to the starship, so secrecy would be preserved.

The co-pilot yelled, "It's a trap! Get out of here!"

Her finger stroked the trigger. Na'dia pictured in her mind's eye the ignition of the primer on the cartridge, followed by the long slow burn of the propellant, expanding into a hot gas and pushing the cannon shell down the barrel of the BFG. She felt the beginning of the recoil, slamming the butt into her shoulder, as the rifling engaged the shell, spinning it to impart gyroscopic stability to the lethal projectile.

When the shell exploded from the barrel, the enclosing sabot fell away, exposing the depleted uranium needle that was the real payload. Although the needle left the barrel travelling at almost Mach 3, the dense air hardly heated the projectile, although it had slowed to just under Mach 1.5 by the time it impacted on the armoured glass of the cockpit window.

The energy it spent penetrating the armoured glass dropped the speed of the needle below the speed of sound, so by the time it penetrated into the cockpit the round was subsonic. In the intervening three feet between the window and the head of the pilot, the needle had yawed to the right, so that it was travelling almost entirely sideways when it impacted on the bridge of the pilot's nose. Still, the energy of the round was immense, exploding the top of the skull and the brain it protected into a pink spray that stained the rear of the cockpit.

Na'dia had fired almost a hundred rounds to determine the optimum distance against facsimiles of the shuttle windscreen, all in order to discover the best compromise between minimising damage to the cockpit whilst still killing the pilot.

She was already shifting her point of aim before the projectile spent its remaining energy against the cockpit pressure door, failing to penetrate it. Na'dia ordered again, "Co-pilot. Open airlock doors or co-pilot dies."

She was pleased to hear the sound of the airlock doors opening, the cockpit alarm sounding as it detected the presence of the Pandoran atmosphere. She saw Renshaw storm into the cockpit with a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other, as the co-pilot reached for an exo-pack, eager to avoid death by suffocation.

Na'dia switched her aim point back to the pilot's window. Good, she thought. The armoured glass had not shattered, instead functioning as designed, allowing the projectile to penetrate the glass like a micrometeorite and leaving a hole microns larger than the needle itself. The patching kit in the cockpit toolbox would be able to seal the hole against vacuum and the heat of launch and re-entry.

She listened to that chatter between the control tower and the starship – there was not a single hint of trouble.

The first part of the plan was successful. They had captured the shuttle.


	24. Chapter 24

"No," said Na'dia. "Mates will not come. High possibility of death. Cubs must be cared for."

Txep'ean and Ninat opened their mouths to disagree with her. It was only to expected, she realised. Neither of her two legs mates was cowardly or craven. She reached over her shoulders and drew her shortswords. Both of them took an involuntary step backwards at the expression on her face as she announced, "Self will wound mates if not agree to stay with cubs."

"She will do it," said Txep'ean quietly. He well knew from old the determined expression on her face, whether or not she was possessed by her palulukan spirit. He also knew that she could best both of them together in combat – her blade skills were unmatched by any Na'vi, for none were trained from the time they first walked in the way of the sword.

Ninat scowled, "It is not fair."

"Is not fair," agreed Na'dia. "Only dreamwalkers may fight. Danger of technology too unknown for born Na'vi to succeed in battle. Even then, only some may come."

They were standing at the ramp of the Valkyrie shuttle. The twenty uniltìranyu that Renshaw had chosen were already on board, waiting impatiently for her. Even now she could hear a torrent of obscenity as Sharon abused one of the other soldiers for standing on her tail, followed by the strained laughter of the other soldiers.

Txep'ean asked stiffly, "Come back to us." Her mate was too proud to beg, even though he wished to.

Na'dia sheathed her blades and nodded. "If self can," she answered. She walked up the ramp and pulled the exo-pack over her face, the mask hissing slightly as it sealed. As the ramp closed, she turned to catch a brief glimpse of her two mates. Na'dia half raised her hand in a Na'vi gesture of farewell, but then dropped it. She had been too late. It did not matter. They knew what she was thinking.

"Place your tray tables and seat backs in a fucking upright position," growled Sharon. Apart from Tania, she was the only other female on board the shuttle "Fasten your bloody seat-belts and prepare for fucking take-off."

The deck shifted slightly beneath her feet as the shuttle lifted into the air. Renshaw was a smooth pilot, and it seemed that the hasty modifications to the cockpit seats were not impeding his ability to fly this beast. When she had discussed this option with him, he had told her that the shuttle almost flew itself. Na'dia took the seat next to Tania, who had a knowing half-smile on her face. The seat was far too low for comfort, and did not have anywhere comfortable to place her tail. But it was only for twenty minutes. She could wait for twenty minutes.

Sharon grinned across from the other side of the cargo bay, quipping, "Us girls have to stick together." It seemed nothing shook her brash confidence. The males, on the other hand, all looked grim and determined.

None of the soldiers were carrying firearms. Renshaw had made the decision that the danger of decompression was too great, so they were restricted to bows, knives and clubs. Muscle-powered weapons would provide more than enough killing potential in the restricted space of the starship – especially when wielded by Na'vi.

The climb into orbit did not exceed 4g. As soon as the acceleration ceased, Na'dia unbuckled her seatbelt, and pushed off, heading for the cockpit airlock door. The smell of fresh blood filled her nose when she opened it, making her heart pound with suppressed excitement. She glanced forward at the windscreen – there was a small patch over the hole her shot had drilled through the armoured glass.

Renshaw said calmly, "The patch is solid. There was no loss of cabin pressure on the way up."

She pulled herself into the place where the co-pilot's seat had been, and asked, "Where is starship?"

"Behind and above us," said Renshaw. "I'm just setting up the burn to take us to up to the higher orbit. As we gain orbital speed and height, our angular velocity will decrease, so the starship will catch up to us, and we will slide in underneath."

Na'dia wrinkled her brow briefly. What he said did not seem to make sense. Surely if you went faster, you should get further away.

Renshaw smiled, adding, "Orbital mechanics is a little counterintuitive for those used to operating in a gravity field. You'll just have to take my word for it."

Only a slight crescent of the world below them was visible, blocked by the nose of the shuttlecraft. Forward and above them, however, was the glorious sight of Polyphemus and its many moons that was so familiar to her, but now crystal clear, unfogged by the dense Pandoran atmosphere.

"Initiating burn," announced Renshaw.

Na'dia felt the sudden onset of weight as the acceleration pressed her back against the cockpit wall. It kept her pinned there for no more than thirty seconds, and then just as suddenly was gone. Renshaw flicked some switches, adding, "We'll be docked in five minutes. There will be a little thruster activity, but nothing like the burn. Get the troops ready to move."

"Srane," said Na'dia.

The colonel was as good as his word. Almost exactly five minutes later there was a a series of bumps and clunks. His voice came over the intercom. "We have hard dock. Equalising pressure. GO!"

Na'dia grabbed the door handle, twisted it and hauled it down. There was a hiss as the slight pressure differential equalised, followed by a swirl of ice crystals. Above her was another door, exactly like the one she had just opened, except to open this door she had to push rather than pull. She swam up into the docking tunnel towards the door that would open the way into the bowels of the starship.


	25. Chapter 25

The door swung open just before Na'dia reached for the handle. The human male behind the door did not have time to do anything other than assume a horrified expression when she spitted him with her knife, grabbing hold of the back of his neck and ramming the wickedly curved blade under his rib cage. She felt the fluttering of his heart tear itself apart on the sharp point of the bone knife, until it stopped with a shudder as she ruthlessly twisted it.

The human released his last breath directly into her face, his mouth trying to make a single word - why?

She did not think he would be happy with the only answer she had – because he was in the way.

Na'dia eased the blade out of the corpse, a few drops of blood leaking from the wound floating through the air, each drop wobbling like a jelly as the surface tension stopped the small spheres of blood from dissipating into mist.

One of the Uniltìranyu shot past her, and swam down the other docking tunnel to secure the second shuttle craft. Renshaw detailed two of the men to stand guard on the docking ports, and took half the remainder to secure Propulsion and the cryogenics pods. As she led her uniltìranyu towards the crew hab modules, there was a brief scream from the other shuttle that was suddenly cut off.

The central corridor of the starship was painted white, with large red numbers counting down the frame numbers towards the front of the starship. Na'dia propelled herself down the corridor, grabbing the occasional handhold to correct her trajectory. Every twenty frames there was a pressure door. No doubt the uniltìranyu were setting off alarms as they spread over the ship.

At frame forty, Na'dia hesitated to open the pressure door. There was a life spark behind it, waiting. When Tania reached for the door handle, Na'dia caught her by the wrist. "No," she said quietly. "Self feels tawtute behind door with weapon. Hide. Self will deal with this." She took a deep breath and concentrated, making herself one with the alien air.

Sharon swore, "Holy fuck!"

Her response was not unexpected as Na'dia faded from view, until all that could be seen was a faint rippling distortion in the air, much like the initial mixing of Earth and Pandoran atmospheres. There was a faint ringing of metal as Na'dia drew her shortswords. "Open door," ordered Na'dia softly.

A shot fired as the door opened, the soft lead leaving a spall mark on the door as it ricocheted off. A pistol, thought Na'dia. The shooter was anxious, and let his shot off too early. This was not a problem that two legs males suffered from – or females, for that matter.

Na'dia slid through the door opening. The space behind was a not a corridor – it was a large circular compartment, spinning slowly about the long axis of the starship. The tawtute at the other end of the compartment, wearing loose white coveralls. He held an automatic pistol aimed at the door. She pushed off, drifting towards him.

"Shoot it!" screamed a voice over a speaker. Clearly, there was a camera monitoring the compartment.

The tawtute asked, "What? There is nothing there. The blue monkeys are behind the door."

"It's right in front of you!" screamed the voice.

So she was.

Na'dia swung both blades in a scissor-like action, so that she did not start herself spinning. The razor sharp swords met at his neck, severing the head with a soft ring of metal when the blades lightly kissed together. The head went spiralling away shedding a spray of blood drops, while a great curtain of blood erupted from the torso. Her flight took her through the curtain of blood, soaking her entire body. She licked her lips, tasting the sticky saltiness of the blood that had splattered over her face.

She stormed up into the rotating crew hab module. Suddenly, there was an up and a down, which made it much easier to kill. Some humans tried to face her, with whatever improvised weapons they could find. She cut them down ruthlessly. Five minutes later, she was facing the only other living being in the crew hab module - the mission commander. He was cowering in a corner of the bridge of the starship, begging for mercy.

Na'dia paused. She was interested to wonder why this creature thought it should live. "Why should self spare human?"

The man was so astonished by her question he was struck dumb. Na'dia waited for a good ten seconds without receiving any coherent answer. Clearly, there was no good reason why he should continue living, so she killed him, gutting him like a pig.

Tania came swimming head first down the ladder, followed by Sharon. They both had sick expressions on their faces.

"Is other module clear?" asked Na'dia, her voice level and calm. Her blades were pointing to the floor, relaxed in her hands. Blood slowly dripped down the blades and dripped off their points. Her bloodstained footprints marked the floor.

"We cleared it," said Tania.

"Yeah," said Sharon, "But we didn't fucking butcher everyone."

Na'dia nodded. "Is waste of good meat," she said. "Self understands. Flesh will rot before it may be eaten."

"Shit," murmured Sharon. "Sully was right. You really are out of your fucking mind."

Tania replied, "She is not crazy. Palulukan are neither Na'vi nor human. They do not think like us."

The bloody woman gazed steadily at the two uniltìranyu, making them shift uneasily from one foot to the other. "What does it matter how the tawtute die," she said eventually. "As long as they perform some use in dying. And die the tawtute must, if Pandora is to live."

Renshaw slid down the access ladder from the starship core, landing lightly on his feet. "Na'dia is right," he said, his face grim. "We have no choice if we wish to live free."


	26. Chapter 26

Renshaw had detailed the three women to clean up the bodies of the tawtute crew. Sharon had muttered under her breath about gender stereotyping and the tyranny of the fucking male patriarchy. She did not, however, dispute his right to give her orders to his face.

The job required them to collect the various bits of bodies and take them to the second hab module, which was primarily occupied by life support.

When they lugged the first load to the algae organic waste digester, Na'dia laughed.

Tania and Sharon looked at her curiously. "What's so funny?" asked Tania.

Na'dia pointed to the manufacturer's plate on the digester feed. She said, "Even tawtute have sense of humour."

Sharon read the plate aloud. "A product of the Soylent Green Corporation, an RDA subsidiary. I don't see what's so fucking funny."

"Obscure tawtute cultural reference," replied Na'dia, in apparent explanation for her laughter.

"Would you really eat humans?" asked Tania.

"No," said Na'dia. "Self likes food, will not eat flesh that smells bad like tawtute – food for nantang. Tawtute blood tastes good though, very salty." She smiled, showing her pointed canines. "Self knows that two legs taste very good."

Sharon looked ill. "You're shitting me," she said. "Tell me you haven't eaten Na'vi."

"Self has not eaten two legs," admitted Na'dia, stuffing the lower half of a tawtute body into the digester. "Self knows what taste is like from memories of sensei."

Sharon could not let it go, asking curiously, "Would you eat Na'vi?"

Na'dia replied without a moment's hesitation. "Yes."

"Jesus fuck!" responded Sharon. It seemed an appropriate thing to say.

The palulukan woman decided to expand on this point. Life could become difficult if the Na'vi on the starship were continually worrying if they were going to be eaten. "Self finds thought of killing two legs distasteful, so likelihood of eating two legs is minimal, no matter how good taste is. And self would only eat two legs that self killed."

Tania chuckled, "So I can sleep well tonight, secure in the knowledge that I will not become a late night snack."

"Unless I feel like some late night muff-munching," said Sharon crudely.

Recycling the bodies and mopping up the floating blood took much of the next two days. It was important to remove the floating blood from the zero-g areas of the starship – inhaled liquid could cause some serious medical issues. Renshaw insisted on making a personal inspection of the entire starship to ensure that the cleanup was adequate.

Once the inspection was complete, he called the uniltìranyu together in the mess hall to brief them.

"The _ISV Venture Star_ will be braking for Pandoran orbit in five days. Due to our success in boarding the _Dog Star_ while in radio shadow from Pandora, the crew of the _Venture Star_ is unaware that the RDA is no longer in control of this vessel." The colonel paused, and smiled briefly. "Well done."

"Our mission requires us to board and take control of the _Venture Star._ Due to the circumstances of its last visit to Pandora ten years ago, our target is equipped with only one Valkyrie class shuttle. The orders to the former commander of the _Dog Star_ required him to permanently transfer one of her shuttles prior to the _Venture _Star landing any RDA personnel on the surface. This will give us the opportunity to take control through another boarding action."

"However," said Renshaw, "This will be more difficult than the action we have just won. Unlike _Dog Star_, which was just carrying the starship crew itself, the _Venture Star_ has a full load of passengers – both miners and soldiers. Our mission, our lives and the lives of our loved ones require us to pursue this action with total ruthlessness."

Na'dia listened to the colonel outline the plan for the boarding action. It was much as she had first discussed with Renshaw. He had both simplified and elaborated the plan, using his knowledge of military tactics and starship layout to come up with an optimal solution for her basic concept.

There wasn't much for Na'dia to do while they waited for the _Venture Star_ to make orbit, unlike some of personnel that had come on the assault. They were engaged in modifying the life support systems to produce Pandoran atmosphere throughout the ship – they had only extended to the cryogenic pods previously. Once that was done, they could take off the damn exo-packs and breath real air – if you could call the damned canned atmosphere in the starship real air, which it wasn't.

Others were engaged in hacking the computer systems, to disguise video communications with the faces and voices of the late crew, while Renshaw started work on mission parameters. That left Na'dia with nothing to do other than to gaze through an observation port at her world below. Well, that, and eating the gloop that the algae digester produced.

It was a relief when Renshaw broadcast over the intercom that the boarding crew was to assemble on shuttle one for the assault on the _Venture Star_ – the starship that had brought her tawtute self to Pandora so many years ago.


	27. Chapter 27

It was a shame that they had limited time to prepare this mission. Although the sterolithography plant was a brilliant piece of machinery that could produce almost anything from basic raw materials, the time required for design precluded the Uniltìranyu from producing more than two pressure suits suitable for Na'vi, and they had been claimed by Na'dia and Tania. Not that anyone else had volunteered for this particular job.

"You're both fucking crazy," said Sharon, as she fitted the helmet to Tania's neck ring. She gave it a twist, locking it into place with a satisfying click.

"Plan is most effective way to take starship with fewest two legs casualties," said Na'dia. "Not lowest risk plan though." She already had her helmet on, and was checking the status lights – all green. "All clear."

"All clear," echoed Tania. Her face was distinctly paler than usual. Sharon checked their gear was all securely fastened. If they dropped anything, they weren't going to be getting it back.

Na'dia and Tania squeezed into the shuttle air lock together. There wasn't much room for both of them – it really wasn't built for Na'vi. The clang of the door shutting was like the knell of doom.

Renshaw said, "We'll be undocking in a couple of minutes. As soon as we are clear of the _Dog Star_, I'm dumping the air from the airlock, and you can go EVA. Make sure you tie yourselves down like we discussed – you'll have two minutes. We won't be doing any burns over one g, but that's enough to bang you around pretty good. Remember, you have to stay in emcon until the shooting starts."

"Self hears Ren'zhore," said Na'dia. Tania said nothing.

It seemed like only seconds passed when they felt the shuttle start to move, and it became very quiet in the pressure suits. Na'dia glanced at the indicator light on the external door, which was now at green – there was no pressure differential between the inside and outside of the airlock. They were now in vacuum. She reached for the doorhandle, twisted it and pulled it down.

The outside of the shuttle was brightly lit by the sun. Na'dia quickly pulled herself out of the airlock and moved to one side of the docking collar where there were some handholds. She snapped her safety line into the socket by the handhold, wound in the slack, and looked for Tania to do the same. It had taken longer than she had thought to get out, because Tania was still reeling in the slack in her line when Renshaw executed the first burn. Tania staggered slightly, but still managed to remain upright.

It was only then that Na'dia looked to see where the _ISV Dog Star_ was. It was already surprisingly far away.

Renshaw had planned it so the rendezvous with the _Venture Star_ would be on the nightside of Pandora. That would reduce the chance of being seen, but not eliminate it, due to the illumination from Polyphemus and Alpha Centauri B. There was no point in making it easy for the tawtute.

It was strange, standing on the back of the shuttle craft, surrounded by the emptiness of space. Everything was so very big, while Na'dia and Tania were so very small.

Na'dia was watching the mission clock count down. She moved to touch her helmet against Tania's and said, "Thirty seconds."

Tania replied, "Ok."

At ten seconds, they unsnapped their safety lines, and stood cautiously up, trying not to push off from the shuttle craft.

Na'dia had floated about three centimetres away from the hull, when the pre-programmed flight plan cut in her thrusters, pushing her away from the shuttle and orienting her for her trajectory for the rendezvous with the _Venture Star_. Five seconds later, Tania's thrusters lit off as well, keeping her out of Na'dia's thruster wash.

As soon as they were clear of the shuttle, they saw Renshaw burn his reaction thrusters, killing the vessel's speed in relation to its target. He was simulating a failure of the automated docking system which would cause him to make a manual approach, with the idea of distracting any viewers on the _Venture Star_ from observing the two free-flying Na'vi. Instead, they would be watching the shuttle make a manual approach about thirty minutes later – by any measure a tricky maneuver. It would also give Na'dia and Tania time they desperately needed. The shuttle drifted away, leaving them with only one thought - there was now no going back. They were committed.

They drifted in formation, trying to stay as still as possible to reduce the impact on their trajectories. Under their backs, the Pandoran night slid beneath them, unseen. With a gentle touch, the thrusters fired, turning them so they were drifting feet first, another gentle thrust killing their rotation. The _Venture Star_ came slowly into view, and Na'dia wondered idly if the numbers used in the flight plan were wrong. Perhaps they would drift right on past the starship, doomed to die in orbit when their oxygen ran out.

She had mulled on this thought for no more than about five seconds when the reaction thrusters roared into action, matching their velocity to that of the _Venture Star_, and slowing pushing them towards the rear of the cryogenic modules. Na'dia glanced at the amount of remaining propellant – it was winding down to zero with great rapidity. She blinked to clear her eyes, and suddenly the roaring stopped. Na'dia was stationary, about fifty feet from the dubious safety of the starship, with just under three percent of propellant remaining. Na'dia looked to her left to see Tania floating about seventy feet away, closer to the core of the ship than she was.

Tania waved and pointed to the nearest module, indicating that was to be her aiming point. Na'dia waved back. She watched Tania thrust towards the target, strike it gently, her hands scrabbling for a firm hold before she finally managed to grab a hand hold and snap in her safety line.

Na'dia boosted, using Tania as her target rather than trying to latch on to the starship hull. It was a much lower risk option, as there was a lot more that was grabbable to Tania than there was of the starship. She made a lunge for Tania's left leg and hauled herself in, securing herself to her partner with a safety line. Na'dia brought her helmet into contact with Tania's and said, "Self Sees two legs."

Tania chuckled back, "I've never been so glad to See anyone in my life. That was seriously scary."

"Must act now," advised Na'dia calmly.

The two women began the task they were here for. Tania used the space glue applicator on the hull of the starship, making each placement according to the targeting program on her helmet heads-up display, the glue leaving a dull pinky-red splotch on the white hull. Na'dia slapped the disks of the shaped charges on the glue, taking care that she was putting them the right way around, and arming the detonators.

They had to work quickly, placing the charges in the predetermined pattern, continually attaching and detaching safety lines, so they did not drift away from the hull. The interior of their pressure suits got warmer, as their environmental units – designed to dissipate the heat produced by small human bodies – struggled to cope with the high temperature metabolism of a Na'vi. Both of their faceplates were fogging up with moisture, despite the hot air blowing across their faces.

Na'dia glanced up after positioning a charge on the third of the cryogenic modules. The shuttle was easing up to the docking station. They were behind schedule – there were still two charges to place. The only problem is that there was no way to hurry. She switched her comms on, listening in to the chatter between the shuttle and the starship.

The final charge was emplaced as the shuttle achieved hard dock. The two women were standing on the hull in the middle of an array of shaped charges. There was not going to be enough time to scale across the hull, attaching and detaching safety lines. They touched helmets again.

Na'dia said, "Use propellant to get clear. There." She pointed towards the spidery girders of the central truss.

"Ok," replied Tania.

They disconnected their safety lines, and boosted. The flight barely lasted fifteen seconds. They were scrabbling for a hold on the central truss when they heard Renshaw give the code word. "Instigate."

Na'dia reached to grab hold of a projection and used it to spin herself around. There were silent flashes of light against the section of hull they had just vacated, followed by massive amounts of gas venting from the interior, accompanied by a slight shudder of the central truss as the shock wave propagated through the structure of the starship. The end of the cryogenic chamber began to crack and splinter, and then suddenly gave away under the pressure of the venting gas. Bodies came tumbling out, their faces gasping for air that was no longer there.

All of the cryogenic modules were breached, scattering bodies and debris through the space around the starship, which had begun a slow tumble and yaw from the thrust of escaping gas, the world overhead gyrating in a sickening fashion.

The two women hauled themselves along the central truss until they came to the shuttle docking module. There was an airlock there attached to the central corridor of the starship.

Once they were inside, Na'dia yanked open the inner door, to be confronted by Renshaw.


	28. Chapter 28

"We have a problem," said Renshaw. When Na'dia went to remove her helmet, he ordered, "Leave it on. The corridor has lost pressure between frames eighty and one hundred. The door to cryo module two failed to close after the charges blew, so there is nothing in there but hard vacuum."

Tania commented, "You'll lose atmosphere clear back to the docking station if we go down there."

Renshaw replied, "If we don't take the crew hab module, then the mission fails. We need air to achieve the objective."

Na'dia glanced at the frame number of the docking station – frame one-twenty - and said, "Self will see to door. If attempt fails, use explosives to break back of starship. Humans cannot retain control of starship. Tania must set external charges. Call two legs back to this location, ready to evacuate."

"Already done," said Renshaw. "They are clearing Propulsion and the cargo modules as we speak."

She nodded in understanding and pulled herself through the pressure door, dogging it tight. Quickly, Na'dia propelled herself down the corridor, until she arrived at the pressure door at frame one hundred. It was with a sense of minor annoyance that she realised the door opened inwards. The pressure differential would make it impossible to just open the door. To the right of the door there were the controls for an equalising pressure valve. She braced herself against the door and cracked open the valve.

The slight hiss of air flowing through the valve was audible even through her helmet. Na'dia opened the valve as far as it would go, the hissing growing to a roar, which slowly faded until there was no noise at all.

The door opened easily after a single tug at the handle.

In this section of the corridor, many of the lights were broken by the sudden depressurisation, but there was no other sign of damage. The pressure doors to the hab modules were at the other end of the corridor section. Na'dia swam up the corridor. It was clear why this section had lost pressure. The door to cryo module two was propped open by a human body, obviously caught trying to escape from the cryo module when it lost pressure.

Na'dia pushed the door open and grabbed the corpse, inadvertently turning it over to see its face. It was a young woman, her face frozen in an expression of horror, frozen blood foaming out of her ears, nose and mouth, and staining her wispy blond hair. It was not a pretty sight – especially her ruptured eyeballs.

It was a long way to come to experience such an ugly death.

"Oeru txoa livu, ma oeyä tsmuke," she murmured, momentarily moved to pity. "Hu nawma sa'nok tivul ngeyä tirea." She wondered what would happen to the bodies that were ejected from the starship during the depressurisation. Perhaps their orbits would gradually decay, and they would burn up on re-entry to Pandora's atmosphere, finally becoming part of the embrace of Eywa. So their spirits would truly come to be cherished, instead of wandering the trackless emptiness of space for eternity.

She pushed the body back into the cryo module and hauled the door shut, sealing it tightly. Now to repressurise the corridor.

Na'dia caught sight of movement out of the corner of her eye. Her moment of sentiment had caused her to lose attention – the pressure door at frame eighty was opening, to reveal a spacesuited figure carrying a pistol. She hadn't even felt the approaching lifespark. So slowly, so very slowly the human lifted the weapon to point it at her, as she pushed off the side of the corridor, driving for the figure.

The pistol flashed noiselessly. Her ears were suddenly filled with the hissing of gas escaping from her pressure suit, and the roar of the fans in her backpack trying to make good the air loss. She didn't even feel the bullet strike her body, because she was too focused on killing the human that had shot her. The human had not braced itself before it shot the pistol, the reaction from the shot spinning its body away from her.

Na'dia lunged for its right arm as the human spun in a slow tumble, her long fingers wrapping around its wrist. The human struggled to bring the pistol to bear, but Na'dia managed to keep the pistol pointed away as she anchored herself to the human, clasping its torso between her thighs. That gave her the leverage to twist its arm to an unnatural position – she even heard the crack of the arm breaking transmitted by their close contact. Its fingers opened to release the gun, which she managed to snag with her other hand. Na'dia shoved the pistol against the glass faceplate, and before she pulled the trigger, heard it scream, "No!"

The faceplate was suddenly splashed with gore.

Red lights flashed in her heads up display – the oxygen numbers were spinning down to zero. She wouldn't have time to get back to frame one twenty, not before all her air was gone. Na'dia gasped out, "Ren'zhore. Pressurise corridor."

Her vision was narrowing rapidly to a tunnel in front of her, and then faded to gray. All she could hear was the hissing of air escaping.

Na'dia blinked, and took a deep breath. There was air, and light. She grabbed her helmet and twisted it, removing it from the neck ring. The corridor swam into view behind a concerned looking face – Renshaw.

"We thought we lost you for a moment there," he said, handing her an exo-pack.

"Is starship secure?" asked Na'dia, as she slipped on the hated device.

"Yes," he answered. "Thanks to you, and Tania."

"Sìltsan," she said. "Will starship fly again? It would be unfortunate if not. The plan requires it."

"Propulsion is intact, and despite your efforts it seems there is no major structural damage," he advised with a wry smile. "The life support systems, on the other hand, have been substantially damaged. It won't support a crew on an interstellar journey again."

Na'dia started to struggle out of the spacesuit. Her plan did not require it to carry a crew. As she emerged from the suit Renshaw gave an admiring whistle, causing her to look sharply at him. He pointed to a long burn mark, spiralling clockwise once around her right arm from her wrist to her shoulder. "You were damned lucky."

She picked up her suit, and saw two bullet holes – one entering at the wrist, and a large exit hole in the shoulder.

Even palulukan girls could grin.


	29. Chapter 29

It seemed like an age since Na'dia had felt the tug of gravity, except for the slightly disorienting spin of the crew hab modules. In reality, she had been in orbit for six weeks with the Uniltìranyu and Renshaw, removing the cargo modules from the _Venture Star._ Operating the cargo handling equipment to load the Valkyrie shuttle was child's play. Renshaw had been kept busy as the only semi-qualified shuttle pilot they had, taking the cargo down to the surface. They other two shuttles had been flown down in automated mode, so they could be modified for a Na'vi pilot at Hell's Gate.

She had taken on a grisly duty without anyone asking her - gathering the bodies of the slain tawtute from the starship and jettisoning them into decaying orbits. Na'dia had found over one hundred bodies inside the cryo modules like that of the young blond woman, killed by explosive decompression and exposure to hard vacuum. None had touched her quite like that of the young woman, who had died desperately trying to hold on to life, but they were all sad in a way. Many died unawakened in cryogenic sleep, but no matter how they died, they were all dead.

Na'dia dealt the same with the bodies of the tawtute that had fallen in combat. No prisoners were taken.

None of the Uniltìranyu had offered to help her.

Instead, they had been preparing the starships for flight. One of the trickiest tasks was slaving the controls of the _Venture Star _to those of the _Dog Star_, whilst still giving the AI sufficient freedom of action to manage flight detail. It was not that difficult, just tedious and time-consuming.

But now, everything was done. All the cargo modules were on the surface, and both starships prepped for departure. All that remained was to send the remaining Uniltìranyu back to the surface in the last shuttle flight.

The spin on the crew hab modules on the _Dog Star _had been stopped, and they were stowed in their acceleration positions. This meant that the large observation window on the bridge pointed directly down at the Pandoran surface. Na'dia thought to herself that this was the last time she would see this spectacular view, of her adopted world.

"Self will miss this," said Na'dia.

Tania was standing alongside her, taking in the immensity of the world. She smiled, and said, "So will I." She paused before commenting, "Earth used to look like this once, if you believe the old documentaries, but now it is all brown or grey."

Na'dia did not reply. She would see Earth soon enough again. It was her part in the plan to stop the tawtute, and she could not expect anyone else to undertake it. She reached for Tania's hand, and squeezed it gently. "Self will miss Tania also."

"I know," replied Tania, squeezing back. Her face gave a curious twitch combined with a wink.

There was a sound like 'pfft' from behind Na'dia, and she felt a slight sting in the buttock. She moved her hand, and found a dart embedded in her ass. Dreamily, she plucked it out, and turned to see Sharon lowering a blowpipe.

"Why?" she asked vaguely, somehow knowing what was happening.

Tania pulled the limp woman into an embrace and hugged her tight. "I couldn't let you do it," she said. "I couldn't let you leave Tat'yana, and Ninat, and Txep'ean. I See how much you love them, and how they love you, even as a palulukan. It is not fair to sacrifice their happiness and love as well as your own."

"But..." slurred Na'dia, unbidden tears running down her face.

"Pandora was too late for me," said Tania sadly. "Almost three decades too late. I died inside many years ago, scarred and limbless in my wheelchair. I hoped that I could live again as a Uniltìranyu, and thought for a while that I could, especially after you captured me and made me Omaticaya. I came to see that life as a Na'vi was not my path, and then Eywa showed me the way. That was why there was no-one for me amongst the Na'vi."

Consciousness was slipping away from Na'dia. She felt Tania kiss her gently on the lips, and then dimly, she heard Tania ask Sharon to make sure she returned to Pandora on the shuttle flight.

The last she saw of Tania was her standing with her back to the observation window, watching Sharon tow Na'dia out of the bridge. Somehow, she managed to murmur, "Eywa ngahu."

Tania smiled, and returned the farewell. "Eywa ngahu."

Na'dia remembered only glimpses of the journey back to the surface - a confusing kaleidoscope of the interiors of the starship and the Valkyrie shuttle, and the tarmac of Hell's Gate.

It was only after dusk that she regained full consciousness.

She stood in front of Renshaw on the hard grey concrete of the landing field, and glared at him, not saying a word. He just returned her anger with a steady gaze, before saying, "She volunteered for the mission."

"Self volunteered," said Na'dia angrily. "Concept belonged to self, so cost should accrue to self also."

Renshaw shook his head, "I would have trumped both of you, and taken the mission myself. Tania convinced me that she was the right one for the mission. She said Amala and my child needed me here, and your mates and children needed you. No-one other than her ikran would miss her."

Na'dia scowled, "Tania did not drug Ren'zhore."

He chuckled briefly. "She said that you weren't as open to logic and reason as I was, and might require additional persuasion before you would agree."

That sounded exactly like the Tania from before the nuke.

"She did ask that you don't hurt Sharon, or me," he added wryly.

She sighed, a most unusual reaction from a palulukan, whether two-legged or six-legged. "Self bound by request of Tania," she conceded.

"It's about time," he said, turning to look up at the heavens. Na'dia looked up, seeking the points of light that were the two starships. After a few seconds, one of them flared brilliantly, great jets of glowing gas kilometres long trailing behind it. "The _Venture Star_," he said unnecessarily, identifying the starship boosting away from Pandora. Na'dia knew the flight plan as thoroughly as he did. After all, she designed the mission.

They watched the starship slowly accelerate away from Pandora. It was strange that so much destruction could be carried by a sight so beautiful. A quarter of an hour later, the _Dog Star_ exploded with light, following her sister starship away from this world. Na'dia murmured, "Tswayon hu tìhawnu txan sa'nok txur si ngay." Indeed, her childhood friend needed Eywa's protection, more than anyone Na'dia had ever known.

Na'dia and Renshaw stood silently together, gazing up into the sky at the two brilliant lights in the sky, until the turning of the world hid the starships from view.


	30. Chapter 30

Over the years that followed, another four starships arrived in Pandoran orbit. They were met by the captured Valkyrie shuttles, and told to surrender, or be destroyed.

The first one had tried to run, and light up its superluminal communications back to Earth. All in vain, of course. Since the departure of the _Dog Star _and _Venture Star_, Renshaw had spent the time well, adapting the kinetic strike projectiles called Thor's Hammer as space interceptors. When one hit the antimatter containment vessel on the starship, the explosion vaporised the entire ship, creating a third sun in Pandora's sky that lasted for less than thirty seconds.

The following three ships all surrendered when shown video of the explosion. Eventually, the humans stopped sending starships. Even they figured out that losing communications with six of their starships meant that something funny was happening at Pandora. The captain of the last starship to be captured had said that the RDA was building a fleet of armed battleships to take control of Pandora.

Na'dia had not ventured into space again. She was content to stay with her mates, and watch her daughter grow into a young woman. All said that it was almost impossible to tell mother and daughter apart, unless they stood side by side. To Tat'yana's pleasure, in the last year she had grown one inch taller than her mother. At all other times, only Ninat, Txepean and her siblings Hukato and Seze'nang could reliably say who was who with a single glance – and Mo'at, of course. Even Na'dia's sisters Ney'tiri and Peyral had problems telling Na'dia from Tat'yana.

Which allowed Tat'yana endless scope for mischief, for it turned out that she was an excellent and effortless mimic. Tat'yana replicated her mother's grace, speech patterns and voice impeccably. The only sure way was to look at her hands or feet, seeking four digits instead of five, but Tat'yana was skilled in distracting attention away from these minor impediments to her illusion.

Only on the field of combat could they be told apart, for Na'dia continued to whup her daughter's ass, as Zhake'soolly so delicately put it. Although, Na'dia had noticed in the last few months that it was getting more difficult to do so. The time would soon be coming when Tat'yana would be her equal – at least in taekkyon.

Txep'ean had noticed this fact too, and gently teased her that she was slowing up in her old age. Na'dia had laughed, and then challenged him to try and catch her. What followed was a very enjoyable game, where she had toyed with her mate unmercifully, until she allowed herself to be caught. Txep'ean truly was a fine mate – the best male she could have ever hoped for.

The Omaticaya grew used to Na'dia's unsettling ways, treating her strange palulukan speech and mannerisms as just one of those things. She continued to teach the young to dance, and the ways of taekkyon to those that would be warriors. All in all she seemed happy with her life, despite the shadow in which she dwelt.

She often dreamed of Tania, walking the silent decks of the _Dog Star._ Sometimes she was seated at a console, checking the status of the starship, and its sister, but more often than not, Na'dia observed her childhood friend gazing back at the red-shifted glow of Alpha Centauri A. Never forward at the blue-tinged point of light that was Sol. Na'dia told no-one of her dreams, not her sensei, or even her mates.

This dream was different.

The Sun was no longer a brilliant point of light. Instead, it was now a disc. Tania was seated at the console, watching the take from the _Venture Star_. The humans had not picked up the approaching starships until it was too late. The flight plan had required a slightly longer journey, so that they could approach from a different vector to that taken by the other starship returning from Pandora. As a result, the great lasers had not fired to slow the starships from near-light speed until it was far too late. How could they stop it? It took months to slow down a starship, and the humans only had days.

They had tried. It did no good.

To slow the starships, the lasers had to aim at the immense light sails, which remained undeployed. They could not even damage the starship, for the preprogrammed flightpath kept the flight mirrors oriented towards the orbital lasers, protecting the vessels from harm.

When she was inside the effective range of the lasers, they had tried firing missiles to stop the ships. The flightplan had meant that enough propellant remained to jink the starships unpredictably in their course. Some of the missiles came incredibly close, within less than a kilometre, but they were travelling too fast and jinking too unpredictably to intercept.

Tania watched the _Venture Star _slam into the South Pole crater of the Moon in a great flash of light, the kinetic energy of the starship converted instantly into the most powerful explosion ever created by the hands of Man, obliterating the lunar colony instantly.

A great fountain of lava erupted into space from the impact, but this was not like other strikes that the Moon had received in its 4.5 billion year history. The shock of the needle-like impact drove deep into the core of the Moon, great cracks appearing across its surface, until the Moon slowly shattered into hundreds – no, thousands - of pieces, cracking like an egg. Tania checked trajectories of some of the larger debris – a significant amount of it was going to impact with the Earth over the next few days and weeks, just as predicted.

It didn't matter though.

Tania was going to get there first.

The sphere of the Earth swelled in size rapidly, as the _Dog Star_ flew implacably towards its target.

Just before the starship touched Earth's atmosphere, Tania said one word.

"Home."

There was a flash of white light, and Na'dia woke screaming.

Ninat and Txep'ean were holding her as she shook and wept. Na'dia knew what had happened. She had run the simulations on the computers at Hell's Gate. She knew what she had done, what she had set into motion.

The _Dog Star_ slammed into the Earth's atmosphere, turning immediately into a bolt of plasma that cut right through the crust and miles down into the mantle, stabbing into the rock like a white hot steel rod thrust into butter. The flash of the explosion vapourised every living creature within line of sight, generating a fiery supersonic shockwave that rolled out from the epicentre, setting everything on fire that it touched. She knew that the wall of fire would sweep around the world, killing everything not deep in underground shelters.

The hole punched through the crust erupted in an immense plume of lava, exploding beyond the Earth's atmosphere like an obscene fountain. Nothing had been seen on Earth like it since the eruption that created the Deccan Traps, or the Chicxulub asteroid impact, over sixty-five million years ago. Cities, towns, farms, all were wiped out by the relentless flow of lava.

The Earth rang like a bell, the vibrations causing many faults between tectonic plates to slip violently. The Big One finally wiped California from the map, but this was only one of many massive earthquakes loosed by what the literature euphemistically called an RKV, or relativistic kill vehicle. Tsunami ravaged coastlines and scoured islands clean, causing immense devastation. Hundreds of dormant volcanoes erupted in sympathy. This was what Na'dia had created in the _Dog Star_ – an instrument to exterminate _homo sapiens_, and protect the Na'vi from extinction, by removing the plague of humanity from the Universe.

She was the foretold Anti-Christ. Born out of fire and pain and war, she had brought Armageddon to the Earth, and utterly destroyed Man and all his works.

"What is it, my love?" asked Ninat quietly.

"It is done," whispered Na'dia. "The tawtute are no more. Self dreamed the apocalypse."

She rose to her feet, and called for her daughter, who had only become taronyu two months ago. "Self must go to Vitraya Ramunong," she told her mates. "Now."

Na'dia climbed with Tat'yana to the heights of Hometree, to where the ikran roosted. It was fortunate that both of them were small for Na'vi, otherwise they would have been too heavy for the ikran to carry them both.

The flight did not take long.

The ikran flapped in to an awkward landing, hanging from the wall of Vitraya Ramunong. She slipped off the ikran to the ground before her daughter, who quickly joined her.

"Sa'nu," asked Tat'yana. "Will you be alright?"

Na'dia did not answer her, merely holding her daughter tight for several minutes, before releasing her and walking beneath the Tree of Souls. She stood on the platform where she had died as a human and was born anew as a Na'vi, and joined with the tree in tsahaylu.

It seemed that Eywa was lacking in imagination, or perhaps it was her. After she plunged down the tunnel of light, she found herself back in the dance studio of her youth. Eywa was there, looking out the windows at the city below.

Na'dia looked in the mirrors and saw that she was in her dream palulukan form. Somehow, it seemed right to be here in this form.

"Self answers your summons," said Na'dia.

Eywa turned around and frowned at the palulukan girl. "So you have," she replied, and then frowned at the palulukan girl. "I think it is time to make you whole again, so at least you can speak properly," said Eywa, and clicked her fingers.

A sudden sense of guilt and grief hammered into Na'dia's soul, as the full import of what she had done hit her. She had driven the humans into extinction, an entire sentient species – the species of her birth. The raw emotion almost drove her to her knees. Slowly, she straightened under her burden, to stand tall and upright, as Eywa continued, "I suppose you are wondering why you are here." She smiled at the bloody but unbowed spirit. "You are here to make a choice."

"A choice?" asked Na'dia. "What kind of choice?"

"I suppose you have figured out by now that you could not have completed your task if I had left you your soul," commented Eywa.

Na'dia nodded. She could never have driven the plan to destroy humanity if she had not been totally possessed by the palulukan. There was still a little human in her that identified with her birth species, and she was Na'vi enough to think that extinction of an entire species was an offence against life. This was why Eywa had Chosen her for this task. Only a palulukan could have done this thing, and only one in complete control of a Na'vi body.

"Good," said Eywa. "As I said, you have a choice. You can stay here, where the pain of your life can be healed, or you can return to your body as palulukan, so you may live your life without the burden that you feel, or you may return complete, as human, and Na'vi, and palulukan, just as you are now. A heavy burden indeed, but it is entirely up to you."

Na'dia walked over to one of the windows and looked out at the city of her birth, a city that only existed in her memory. She was now the only living speaker of her birth tongue. Eventually, she said, "The first time I was in this place I was offered a choice between the easy road and a hard road. In making the choice that I made at that time, I realised that I have never taken the easy road. I see no reason to change now. I choose Life, not death."

Eywa looked immensely pleased. "I am very proud of you, my child," she said. "You are one of the greatest of my children, even though you are originally from another world than mine. What you have told me is the very reason why I Chose you for this task, and I am glad you have never changed, at least not from this aspect. I look forward to many conversations with you, once you finally tire of life – and a long life it shall be."

She embraced Na'dia, enveloping the palulukan girl with love.

When the embrace finally broke, Na'dia asked, "Is there anything that I could have done differently, to save humanity from destruction?"

Eywa looked surprised. "But you saved humanity from itself," she said. "Surely you realise that?" At Na'dia's puzzled expression, Eywa explained, "Thanks to you and the Uniltìranyu, there is human DNA preserved within the Na'vi genome, and human culture will be incorporated into their ways as well – and not only the Na'vi. The palulukan have been infected by humanity as well. It is time for my children to grow up, and reach for the stars. You have set them on that path, but I think they will take a different way to that of the tawtute. It will be a very exciting time, I think, for your daughter and her descendants."

"Oh," said Na'dia. All she thought she had been doing was fighting for her life, and for the lives of her loved ones.

There was only one other thing she wanted to ask. Before she had an opportunity to do so, Eywa said, "Over there."

At the other end of the dance studio standing at the door, was a young ballerina, with a snub nose and freckles. "Tania!" she cried, and ran towards her childhood friend, grabbing her in a close hug, before springing away from her. "Are you dead?"

"Of course I'm dead," replied Tania scornfully. "That's why I'm here."

"Did it hurt?"

"One moment I was on the bridge of the _Dog Star_, and the next I was here," said Tania. "Pretty painless, all-in-all, though that is what being turned instantaneously into a jet of plasma does for you. I was rather surprised to still be around, I must admit, but there you go. Eywa still hasn't explained how it happened. It seems she likes to keep a secret or two."

"Tell me about it," said Na'dia, rolling her eyes, before she realised that she was in the presence of Eywa, only to find that she wasn't. Eywa had gone.

"She does that," said Tania. "Going. Just like you have to right now." Na'dia tried to protest, but was overruled. Tania kissed her on the forehead, and told her, "You'll be here soon enough. We can talk then."

Suddenly Na'dia found herself plunging through the tunnel of light to land back in her body, disengaging her queue from the Tree of Souls. Tat'yana was standing close to her, a worried expression on her face, so Na'dia reached for her hand and squeezed it gently.

"'Ite oe ma kelku," she told her proud and beautiful daughter. Where else would Na'dia want to be other than home?

THE END


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